Nouveau Terra
by Wolfeknight
Summary: Trouble arises on Earth as mages begin to awaken there naturally, trouble from a past most know nothing about.
1. Movements

This story is very AU in nature. Some info from the Sound Stages and ViVid manga may be included but it also may not. This story will also be OC heavy.

**Prologue**

**078 Mid-Childa Calender**

**(two years after the JS incident)**

It was very quiet. There was almost nothing to disturb the still night air aboard the ship. It was exactly the way Captain Enshiro Tadeyo liked it. During the third shift aboard the _Heibao_, a patrol and exploration vessel of the Time-Space Administration Bureau, there was always peace.

Most Captains stuck the night shift on their lower officers; often just out of the necessity of the job, but Enshiro did things a bit differently when he could. He very much preferred to be up and about when the majority of the crew was asleep. If there was a crisis he would revert to standard watch rotations, but until then she would have his peace. To be truthful though, there wasn't much that ever made a survey ship non-peaceful. They didn't engage in combat of any kind and they only had a compliment of five enforcers. Not like the new Utu-class transports cruisers, those things carried a full platoon. The only thing the _Heibao_ could boast about was its powerful shields and those for if it went somewhere dangerous, but not necessarily hostile, something Enshiro had no orders to do at the moment.

Right now it was just him on the bridge with the basic skeleton watch. A navigator, a tactical officer, and a comm. officer, that was it. Since his ship was one of the very newest to come out of the HQ construction yard, it had the latest in AI as well. That AI would give assistance if anything dire occurred so that there would be ample time for the crew to get to their posts. All this gave him plenty of time to sit back in his chair and contemplate his newest assignment.

Since the captain's chair on this class of ship was elevated above the bridge crew on a separate platform, his gaze cast directly over their heads in an unfocused stare. The only thing his eyes really saw was the image on the main view screen. It was a simple image really. Similar to dozens like it that he'd seen in the past, this pretty blue ball with its white-grey attendant floated silently in the dark void of normal space. This was what he was here for

He raised a hand and flicked a finger to bring a display into being in front of him. Enshiro sighed. He'd read the report a dozen times already, but he couldn't help reading it again.

This planet, non-administrated world 97, named Earth by its inhabitants, was part of great curiosity by the TSA higher-ups. This entire sector had drawn their attention. While this sector was a good distance from HQ, it had been discovered and explored little more five hundred years ago towards the end of the Belkan wars. And in that entire time it had remained unremarkable and drew very little notice. There were few other human inhabited worlds in the sector and most were even less developed than this one, so there had been little to cause anything of note. Yet now, things seemed to be changing.

Over the last decade or so there had been a rash of incidents. Many of them had involved this very world. And not only that; this world which had previously produced very few mages of any kind of power had given birth to several in a very short period of time. The outbreak was so remarkable that a number of research vessels had been dispatched to explore the region again. Enshiro's own ship was a part of this search.

What they'd found so far had been both very intriguing and also very confusing. After going back over genealogy and TSAB records, a strange pattern emerged. Every single mage that earth produced had had his or her power awoken by external means. Whether it was from a bureau mage or from an artifact of some kind, that trend was true in every single case. And also in every case, those mages proved to be of substantial power or skill. Even now the descendants of those from earth were all very capable people even when they weren't mages. And that didn't fit well with what the rest of their records said of earth and the other worlds in this region of the multiverse.

So now they were here to take a look first hand again to see why there were such inconsistencies and oddities. Unfortunately, the _Heibao_ had drawn a rather dull duty as their part of the project. They were to create new, accurate stellar cartography charts of the Sol system. This was a tedious process that took a great deal of time. A planetary system was by its very nature, an enormous volume. This meant that Enshiro and his crew had spent a great deal of time traveling in a tight spiral from the outer planets to the inner ones.

The work wasn't unnecessary though. Just preliminary comparisons to older charts showed a number of errors and inconsistencies. For instance, the average magical background energy, or MBE, was disproportionately high in this system compared to what the old charts said it should be. Magical energy existed everywhere, this is what made collection type spells possible, but in space it was usually thin and tenuous, like a thin fog. But here it was unusually thick, especially around Earth's moon and the asteroid belt.

Enshiro let out a long calming sigh. There was no point in trying to grapple with the problem right now. All the data was being fed to a research team on Mid-Childa who no doubt had a much greater understanding of things than he did.

"Captain."

Enshiro turned his head down and to the left at the soft female voice and dismissed his screen to look at his Tac officer. She was a very young woman who had joined the crew right before this assignment. Looking at her always made Enshiro feel like an old man.

"Yes Tawno?" He said calmly.

"There's an abnormality with the Moon sir." This time her voice carried a tinge of excitement.

"With the moon?" Tawno nodded. He waved his hand and through his device and connection to the ship, he brought up the information.

What he saw was indeed strange, or at least it was for this system. Earth's moon had the largest concentration of magic after the Earth itself. The asteroid belt was almost as high, but it was stretched out over a vast volume of space. But now though, the moon seemed to be almost pulsing. Like a child playing with a dimmer light switch, the background magic seethed and withdrew in waves that always differed in size. He'd never seen anything quite like it.

"Make sure this data is being sent to the research group and backed up to the Infinite Library," He commanded to the Comm officer.

"Yes sir, already checking the links." Ensign Polvin was an earnest young man. Enshiro always liked having him on watch. "Sir, links verified. All information is being transmitted cleanly and the Infinite Library confirms accurate receipt."

"Thank you Polvin," Enshiro acknowledged with a smile. "Quick work as always."

He watched the wildly fluctuating energy signature with avid interest. This was the kind of thing they were all here to look for, strange and unusual occurrences. Tawno scattered additional searchers until there were close to a hundred scattered around Earth, the moon, and their immediate environs.

Suddenly the seething seemed to jerk to a halt

"Sir! Energy spike!"

Tawno flipped another screen open in front of him and Enshiro stared in consternation. There, on the dark side of the moon and away from the eyes of Earth's inhabitants, was an enormous ring of millions of magical sigils, all of them an ominous red.

"Detir, emergency transit, take us a quarter light minute away in any direction." He ordered swiftly and clearly to the navigator. "Tawno, bring up Iron Fortress and keep an eye on your searchers."

"Aye!" the both responded, fingers flying as they obeyed.

Enshiro felt the magic surge through the ship as its engines were awoken more fully for this task. There was a wave of light that swept over his body and made his skin tingle, and then it was done. Only a soft sighing sound from the engines as they cycled back down from the quick dimensional transport permeated the air for a couple minutest.

Then Enshiro's visual display showed him the results off Tawno's work. A number of glowing blue rings encircled the ship down its entire length. Power rippled and quivered between those rings, ready to snap into form and protect the ship from harm.

Dismissing the shield from is thoughts, Enshiro turned back to the display of the moon. The sigils were still there. The AI told him that they were rotating at a very slow rate of one revolution per single Earth day. That couldn't be coincidence.

Behind him the bridge hatch snapped open and light bathed the dim bridge for a brief instant. Then it was gone again as the confident footfalls of boots strode toward him.

"Captain, I felt the dimensional transfer," His Executive Officer said as she stopped in her customary place next to his chair. Enshiro glanced at her with an amused air. Lieutenant Yarnow was a very effective officer and XO, but she was a stickler for rules and regs. Even now her uniform was immaculate even though she had to have been awoken just a moment before now. Enshiro had been trying for the last month to get her to relax a little before she gave herself health problems. "Are we in any danger sir?"

"Unknown Exec." He said, again in his usual calm. "Some kind of magic just woke up on Earth's moon; I was just taking precautionary measures. Would you please assist Tawno? I need to know how this might affect us."

"Of course sir," Yarnow descended to the lower level and sat at an empty console.

Yarnow and Tawno worked furiously for a few moments and information flowed over their screens. If he wished, Enshiro could view what they were seeing for himself, but that wasn't necessary. A moment later Yarnow's station gave a soft chime.

"Captain, I do not think the ship is in any danger," Yarnow said smoothly. "It appears the magic was some sort of field-type spell. It also appears to be broken or corrupted. It's not functioning smoothly and its form seems to be collapsing.

"Sir, crew reports all hands at their posts." Polvin announced.

Enshiro nodded. The AI had made sure to wake and get everyone moving as soon as the orders for a transit had left his mouth. That was its job; to make sure things ran smoothly so the ship's human crew could function at their best.

"Thank you Yarnow, Polvin," he said in acknowledgement.

As more crew began their assigned tasks, more and more information flowed onto bridge displays. That meant that the special scanner team was bending their tools to the task of figuring out what was going on. As he watched, another screen formed and on it was another image of the Earth and its moon. The only difference was that on this image both were incased in a polyhedral structure.

"Is this the field structure?"

"Yes sir," Tawno answered. "We can't get a good read on what magic system created it, but that's what it looks like."

"There it goes." Yarnow said softly.

As they all watched, the circle of sigils seemed to shatter and fall apart. Individual parts remained for a few moments, but not for long. After about five minutes it was entirely gone. All his other displays confirmed the disappearance of the field as well. The background energy of the entire volume also dropped well below the pre-incident levels.

"Well, that was exciting," Enshiro sighed. "Did you manage to figure out a purpose to that thing?"

"No," Yarnow said as she stood up. "I suspect though that it was already in operation long before we got here. Our actions in this system are probably the reason it destabilized and collapsed."

"That's about that I was thinking as well," Enshiro agreed. "I hope we didn't break something the locals have been relying on."

Yarnow brought up a searcher image from the Earth's surface; it was a display of a major city.

"It doesn't appear that they noticed anything at all of what just happened." She said calmly. "I think it was hiding there for a very long time."

Hmmm, well, it seems to be over now." Enshiro said as he thought things over. "Send the crew back to their sleep and get us back on our scanning route. The big thinkers back home can figure what that was while we do our job."

There was a chorus of affirmations and soon enough they were back where they had been, charting the system. All the while after that though, Enshiro wondered what that magic had been for and he wasn't alone. Magic was almost never seen or worked on a planetary or greater scale. There were too many things that could go wrong with that kind of power flowing around. It was enough to give any educated man the shivers, especially when it occurred in a strange sector of the multiverse as this one. Enshiro prayed silently that nothing else like this or worse happened while his ship was in-system.

*****

**Cranagan, Mid-Childa |**

**Uminari City, Japan**

"Oooph!"

Fate instinctively wrapped her arms around the small blonde haired missile that had nearly knocked the wind out of as she had walked in through the front door of her home. Once she had the door shut and was standing stable again, she placed her right hand on top of that blonde head.

"Are you ready to go now, Fate-mama?" Vivio asked with youthful exuberance.

"I would like to know too, Fate."

Fate looked back up and smiled as Nanoha approached them. She then blushed slightly when Nanoha gave her a small greeting kiss. They'd only recently become more open about their relationship to others, especially Vivio, and it still embarrassed her a little. She knew for the most part, that everyone knew about them being together, but she had never really gotten past her shyness. Hayate liked to tease her about it when she could, but Fate knew she'd likely be this way her whole life. She cared dearly for Nanoha, but public displays of it would never be comfortable to her.

"Yes, all the preparation is done," Fate said, answering them both. "Chrono gave me clearance to take us to the first relay and from there the TSAB will handle everything."

"Alright!" Vivio yelled happily. "When can we go?"

"As soon I pack my bags," Fate smiled at Nanoha's adoptive daughter and her godchild.

"Then we can leave right now," Nanoha grinned at her. Fate thought she looked to be almost as excited as Vivio was. "I got your stuff packed while you were at headquarters. Then I did mine and Vivio's"

Fate laughed lightly at the clear excitement from both Vivio and her mother. The two of them had turned out to be almost ideally paired as mother and child. Sure there were arguments and tantrums on Vivio's part sometimes, but they were a genuinely happy family that deeply loved each other.

That was why they would be traveling today. Two days ago the paperwork and other bureaucratic red-tape had finally been completed. It had already been accepted fact, but now they had the official documents stating that Nanoha was Vivio's mother. That meant that Nanoha was finally free to take Vivio to Earth and to introduce her daughter to her parents. It had taken a lot of convincing on Fate's part to keep her own adoptive mother, Lindy, from spilling the news early. And thus, this trip was born.

"I don't suppose there's in point in waiting then," Fate answered in agreement. "Did you arrange everything with Vivio's school?"

"Yes, Vivo's already fairly far ahead of most of her class, so she won't be missing much that will harm her studies." Nanoha said in assurance. "And I promised to work with her on a few things myself."

"Then let's go!" Fate said, finally allowing some of the excitement to bleed into her as well. "Bring the bags out into the yard and I'll set up the teleport to the first relay station.

"Can I do it?" Vivio asked excitedly. "Can I Nahoha-mama? I've been practicing this one, and Raising Heart says I've got it!"

Nanoha pulled the pink gem in question out from the slightly exposed cleavage of her light blue button-up shirt.

"What do you think?" She asked.

"**It is alright. The magic has been learned." **The device said, flashing as it spoke.

"Then go ahead Vivio."

Vivio ran deeper into the house and a moment later Fate felt magic being worked nearby. Almost as soon as that feeling abated Vivio walked into the living room with three sizable luggage bags floating in the air behind her. Telekinesis wasn't an especially difficult magic to learn but Fate knew it was ahead of the curriculum Vivio had been working on. That meant Nanoha had been teaching her as well.

"Nanoha," Fate said in a chiding tone.

"I know, I know." Nanoha laughed. "I just can't help it though. I like teaching her too."

Fate sighed. There really was no helping it. Nanoha was a little obsessed where Vivio was concerned. Not smothering or controlling though, Nanoha just wanted to be involved wherever she could. Her goal now was to be a good mother to Vivio.

"Well let's get moving," Fate pointed out the door. "Vivio's going to get impatient again."

After locking up the house Fate walked with Nanoha out to the yard where Vivio was waiting with the bags. The girl was sitting on one of them as she enjoyed the warm afternoon sun. Fate noted that Nanoha must have dressed her because Vivio was wearing a nice skirt and sweater, not something the girl chose to wear when she wasn't gong to school. Vivio didn't dislike wearing such clothing, but she usually just wore a t-shirt and shorts when she could.

"Everyone ready?"

Nanoha and Vivio both nodded that they were.

"Then let's get our vacation started. Bardiche."

"**Yes Sir." **

Fate felt the familiar sensation of her device fully interfacing with her linker core and to her mind as her barrier jacket formed around her. A second later she held the comfortable weight of the device in her right hand and extended it out in front of her.

"Dimensional Transfer, TSAB relay station # 45."

As Fate gave the dimensional coordinates she felt the magic forming and solidifying around them. Below their feet a bright yellow circle formed and slowly rotated on its center. When she came to the end of the aria, Fate slashed Bardiche through the air in front of her to activate the magic. Immediately they were engulfed by a light many times brighter than the soothing sunlight around them.

**

When the light cleared from her eyes for the final time, Nanoha breathed in air that filled her with memories and took in the sight in front of her as she stood in the yard of her childhood home. It had been a very long time since she had last been here and just looking at the front door filled her with emotion. Behind that door was her family.

Nanoha glanced and smiled over at Vivio and Fate. It would be more precise to say that her other family was on the other side of the door. Vivio was staring at that door with almost trembling nervousness, her earlier enthusiasm gone. Nanoha didn't blame her daughter for being nervous, she was about to meet her grandparents and her aunt and uncle all at once. Fate was more composed, but only a little. Fate still wasn't comfortable with Nanoha's parents knowing that they were much more than just friends, even though they had known for long time now.

Nanoha approached the door and knocked. It felt a little strange to knock on a door that had once been hers, but she didn't want to just barge into the house. After a minute or so she heard the scuffing sound of lock being undone and then the door opened. And there stood her mother.

"Nanoha?!" Mom said in clear surprise. "What are you…?" She turned and shouted. "Shiro! It's Nanoha and Fate." Smiling happily mother gestured for them all to come inside.

As they all entered the house her father and siblings all came into the family room as a group, all talking excitedly.

"Nanoha, why didn't you say you were coming?" her father asked as he and the others came to a stop. "

"Yes, I would've made a much bigger and better dinner if I'd known you were going to visit." Mom smiled. "But it's nice to see you in person again regardless and you too Fate."

"Sorry mom, but I wanted it to be a surprise," Nanoha laughed.

"It's good to see you all again," Fate said in the shy tone she always slipped into around her parents.

"Who's that?" Kyouya said curiously, pointing toward her legs. Nanoha had timed her visit to coincide with his own visit home from Germany where he was living with Shinobu.

Knowing exactly who her brother was pointing at, Nanoha turned, put her hands on Vivio's small shoulders, and drew her out in front where the girl smiled nervously and held her hands clasped behind her back.

Nanoha couldn't help grinning at the confusion on everyone's face.

"Nanoha, who is this cute thing!" Mother enthused with her usual reaction to anything at all cute. The question at least made Vivio looked a little less nervous.

"Everyone, I'd like to introduce you to my daughter, Vivio Takamatchi. And Vivo, this is your grandmother Momoko, your Grandfather Shiro, your aunt Miyuki and your Uncle Kyouya."

"Um…It's nice to meet you all." Vivo said in a nervous voice as she leaned back into Nanoha's legs.

For a long moment everyone just stared in disbelief and Nanoha didn't blame them. It wasn't everyday that you found out that you were a grandmother or an aunt and uncle.

Mom looked from her, to Fate and then to Vivio. "Nanoha, I know you've told us a lot about what magic can do where you live, but is she…yours and Fate's?"

Nanoha had expected this question so she smiled in amusement. "No, it would be possible for Fate and I to have a child with technology on Mid-Childa, but Vivio is adopted. She's been living with Fate and I for the last year or so. She officially became my daughter on paper yesterday."

"Wow…" Dad blinked a few times and then smiled hugely. "I wasn't expecting to find out I'm a grandfather today, but this is certainly something to be happy about. It's wonderful to meet you Vivio!"

Encouraged by her father's response, Vivio stepped away again from Nanoha and was almost immediately engulfed in a hug by Miyuki. "Mom's right. You're so cute Vivio!"

Vivio giggled and tried to break free but mom took Miyuki's hug as tacit permission to do so as well. Then Vivio was trapped in the middle of a familial sandwich as her grandmother and aunt both hugged her together.

"Are you just here to introduce her to us, Nanoha?" Kyouya asked, letting their sister and mother get to Vivio first.

Nanoha shared a smile with Fate. "Actually, we're both taking a month's vacation. So we'll be here for a little while."

"Good," dad nodded approval. "I want to hear all about my new granddaughter before you two leave again. Come into the kitchen and I'll make us all some coffee."

Leaving the still laughing Vivio to the mercies of her mother and sister, Nanoha and Fate followed Shiro into the kitchen with Kyouya taking up the rear. Once there she was more than happy to tell her family all about how she'd met Vivio.

******

**Iheya-Shima, an island NE of Okinawa, Japan**

Grunting with exhaustion and with sweat dripping down her darkly tanned skin, Alice Rhoads spun in a fast about face, her wooden staff whipping through the air with a sibilant hiss. Not pausing to rest for even a moment she glided into the next of her training kata. Again and again she flowed and spun, never letting her body sit still for long.

She ignored the noonday sun beating down on her long black hair and paid no heed to the sweat stinging at her eyes from the soaked bangs that curled down over her forehead. In her mind there was nothing by the staff in her hands and the imaginary foes she was creating in her head. Every strike or thrust was as precise as she could make it even though her arms were beginning to tremble from fatigue when they sat still.

Normally she was content with one run through of her training exercises, but today was different. She had a need for her exhaustion today. When she trained hard she was often able to slip into an almost trance-like calm and it was that which she sought today.

She soon cast aside her imaginary enemies and focused on the feel of the wood beneath her fingers. The grain of the oak teased her fingertips as the staff spun and moved. Eventually, after almost another hour she reached the end of her training regimen and the staff clattered down in front of her feet.

Alice wasn't far behind the staff. She collapsed down to her bottom and sat on the tar and gravel rooftop of her apartment building. The roof felt warm from the baking sun even through her jeans. Technically she wasn't supposed to be up here, but she knew few other places where she could practice in peace without people bothering her. No one came up to this place, not even the landlord. She had even rigged the lock on the door so that only she knew how to get up here. This was her place in the world and no one else's.

It wasn't that she necessarily disliked people, far from it actually, but she often just liked to get away and escape for a little while. Her training was a part of that escape too. Her father, a colonel in the US Marine Corps, had introduced her to an instructor after her tenth birthday. He had wanted her to have a way to defend herself. Some of the people that lived on this small island weren't the most…honorable of people and he wanted her to have a way to stay safe. But to her it was more than that, it made her feel both apart from the world and joined with it at the same time. Alice loved her martial arts training. She loved pushing and stretching her mind and body to their limits and feeling the endorphins running through her. She also knew it was extremely useful in many ways.

A few years after she had started her training she had noticed what her father had much earlier; that she was fast becoming a woman, and if it wasn't too conceited to acknowledge herself, a fairly good looking one. Attractive, athletic, 16-year-old girls were targets in this area by some of the less reputable sorts, especially the soldiers from the nearby bases, and they needed to know how to take care of themselves. She was also somewhat vulnerable to bullying from some of the more disagreeable locals because of her half-Japanese parentage. The majority of the islanders didn't care, but it was those few exceptions she had to watch out for.

Her father often regretted getting this apartment in town instead of living on base, but Alice never did. There many good things about her home. It wasn't one of the tourist swamped areas so she never had to worry about it being crowded and the weather was fantastic. There was also a really nice park down the road that she liked to read at. There was a tiny shaded grove of trees she hid in that let her read for hours sometime without being disturbed. If she read on a bench she was always bugged by groups of local boys. She also liked to read up here on the roof when it wasn't too hot out.

Her current book sat on a stool a few feet away from her. This one was a college level physics textbook. All her books were usually textbooks. She was always in a constant search for new and challenging things to learn and her school just didn't cut it anymore, it was way behind her. She never said that out loud of course, because no one liked some know–it-all shoving the fact that they were smart in their faces. Instead she studied on her own. Downstairs in her room she had stacks of notebooks filled with equations and notes from just the last couple of years.

She had plenty of time for her self studies. Her father had so far forbidden her from having a part-time job and she didn't have much in the way of friends. The latter was entirely her fault. She got easily absorbed in whatever she was working on and ended up ignoring what was going on around her. Before she knew it, she had become known as the "moody nerd girl," at school and no one had really wanted to seek her out. Everyone already had their formed groups of friends and none felt a need to include her. It was depressing sometimes, she really wanted friends, or at least one good one, but she was realistic enough to realize it wouldn't happen while she still lived in this small community of just over forty-thousand people.

Having finally caught her breath, Alice crawled over, grabbed a spiral bound notebook from under her book and then sat so that she could rest her back against the knee high, brick wall that ran around the rooftop as its border. This moment was what she had been working toward. The time after her workouts where her mind felt clear and her body felt loose. She had difficulty making it work at any other time.

Reaching down she picked up a short, two inch length of electrical wire she'd left here. With her left hand she held it up lengthwise in front of her face. She stared at it for a long moment before setting her notebook down and then raising her other hand up so that her thumb and middle finger where at either end of the wire. Breathing evenly, she reached for that place inside herself that she had found a few months ago.

With a swiftness that surprised her, she found that center. Her body filled with a rushing, tingling sensation that had never happened before. Wanting to test this new feeling, Alice drew the power she felt to her finger. Once there it immediately formed into what she wanted and a dark blue bolt of electricity leapt from her thumb to the wire and then back across the air again to her middle finger. Alice had expected it to only spark once and then die away like every other attempt, but the bolt kept on flowing and crackling in the air. So much so that that she felt the wire heating up in her fingers.

Absolutely shocked at her sudden success, she cut off the flow of power and felt it settle back down within her. The reservoir inside her felt a lot greater than it ever had before. Had something happened to her? She didn't think so. Picking up her notebook, she unclipped her pen from the front cover and opened it up to the next blank page. With a careful and clear hand she recorded the results from her first attempt.

Then, feeling excited, she got back up and retrieved her school bag from by the door to the stairwell. From her bag she withdrew a voltmeter and an ammeter and then resumed her seat. After touching both fingers to the voltmeter's terminals, she again brought that power up. The needled snapped across to the opposing side in an instant, her power exceeded it capacity to measure. The same thing occurred with the ammeter. Again she recorded the results.

"I did it!" she breathed out in a whisper. "I can control it!"

Alice felt her heart begin to race in her excitement. She'd never had this much success before. She had always had to struggle to bring her power out of herself. It had been like trying to swim to the surface of a pool while carrying a heavy rock. But today had been different, nothing had resisted at all. It had flowed out naturally at her command.

Hastily setting the ammeter down, she again raised her hands. Licking her lips nervously, she decided to try something new. She wanted to get her power to form something that she wanted it to and not just electricity. She imagined it in her head, forming a little ball in between her hands. She held that image so hard that her head began to hurt a little. When she knew she had it firmly in mind she again drew on that power and it sapped to obey her. With a slight flickering, a dark blue sphere took form in the exact size she had imagined it. She took away one hand and then moved the other. The ball followed that hand as she wanted it to so that it floated above her palm.

"So cool." Alice couldn't take her eyes of the glowing ball. She could feel her power flowing through her mind to it. It flowed in a in such on odd pattern. With her free hand she sketched the pattern into the notebook. When it was done she started to withdraw her power again.

"Alice!"

Jolting in surprise at someone yelling her name, she let an uncontrolled burst of power flow into the light ball. With a crackled-pop sound, it vanished.

"Ouch!" Looking at her palm she saw that there was a bright red burn on it. That would hurt on the staff later. Standing up, she looked over the side of the roof and downward. On the ground four stories below stood her father in full uniform.

"What?" She called back, cupping her hand to project her voice a little.

Her father raised his right arm and she saw a plastic bag with a restaurant logo on it. "Dinner's what!" He chuckled in amusement and started walking toward the door.

Turning back to her stuff, Alice shoved everything back into her bag, everything except for the wooden staff. As she went to put her notebook inside the bag she couldn't help but smile at the words written across its front as a title. Most people would probably think she was a bit crazy if they read it. She however saw it as the key to her future. It read simply: Alice's Magic Experiments Vol. 1.

Right now it contained only forty-five pages of notes, but today was proof of her diligence. She could control it. Soon she hoped to do amazing things with it. She didn't know what kind of things exactly, but she knew that they would be amazing. They had to be. Why else would she be able to use magic?

Zipping up her bag, she hefted her training staff in her non-burned hand and went to eat dinner, whistling a totally off key pop song along the way.

**Chapter 1: Movements**

Alice strode purposefully but smoothly down the heavily cracked sidewalk. It was a bit busy and crowded this afternoon but she maneuvered through the other people around her with the casual grace of long habit, only occasionally brushing her loose, black t-shirt against someone. She had walked down this particular stretch of road almost every single day she'd lived on the island as it ran from her apartment to her school which sat on the side of a fairly large hill. After school, like now, she walked back down this road and then down a shorter, much less traveled one.

A quarter of a mile down that smaller road she came to the rear entrance of the island's park. As she walked through the pillared opening in the stone wall she sipped absently on the bottle of cherry soda held in her left hand. The park was mostly a large open area of grass, picnic areas, with the occasional tree or playground. On the west end however laid her destination.

Following a thin, mulch covered path, Alice entered the small copse of trees. It didn't cover too wide an area, but it was always shaded and cool. And this time of year it smelled soothingly of growing things. After entering the trees she left the path and crossed through the heavy underbrush to small clearing. She had made the clearing herself when she was just eight years old and she had maintained it to create a place that was just for her; even more so than the rooftop was hers. It was only two strides across in any direction, but on one side she had shoved a large, flat sided piece of reddish sandstone into the ground that leaned back at a slight angle. She made her way to that rock and dropped her stuff next to it. After that she dropped herself to the soft dirt so that she leaned back against the shade cooled stone and set her drink aside.

"God, that feels so good!" she said aloud to no one in particular.

Stretching her arms around behind the stone, she clasped them together and then leaned forward for a second to stretch her sore back muscles. The relief was wonderful.

"Sensei is an absolute sadist!"

After her classes were over for the day, she had her training with an Okinawan martial arts instructor for two hours. Today had been especially grueling as she had still been tired from the night before. Thinking of the previous night, she took a notebook out of her bag. It was identical to its predecessor, but this one read: Alice's Magic Experiments Vol. 2. In just over four weeks time she had made quite a few advances. Whatever had happened on that afternoon on the roof, her power and control had grown in great leaps since. So much so that she was only beginning to come to any kid of understanding of what it could really do.

Flipping to the work she had written the previous night, she studied the image she had drawn on one page in very great detail.

"There's still something off about it." She mused thoughtfully.

There on the lined page was set of geometric shapes, lines and sigils. All of the sigils she had created herself as she tried various things out. All of what was on the page was a representation of the magic she had been working on. She had created it as a means to express on paper what she did with her magic. The sigils and shapes showed and described how shape her power to create a desired result.

After that first attempt at creating that ball of light, she had remembered how the power had wanted to flow and form into a specific pattern to create the effect she wanted. This image was a trial and error creation of her experiments with those magic forms to see what form yielded what result. A novel on magic and myths would probably call it a magical circle. So far she had figured out that most magic responded with the use of the circle with slight variations done to it for the specific spell she wanted to use. It only did simple things so far, but there was progress being made. This one part though was giving her difficulties. She had exhausted herself the previous night working on it

There was an outer double-ring that had three inner circles contained within it. From the smallest, central circle radiated four cardinal rays that pierced all the circles and even the outer ring. Other arcs and shapes crossed or sat within each ring as well. Within much of the remaining empty space she written in her newly created sigils. So far she had made 34 of them to represent specific nuances of power that she had figured out. She had a whole chart in her notebook to describe each one to the point that it was almost becoming a new language of her own devising.

She had focused so much on her experiments lately that her sensei had noticed her fatigue and he exploited it relentlessly today in their sparing matches. Last night had been the worst; she had played around with her magic until almost 3am.

"Ohh!" Alice twitched as a careless movement touched a bruise on her calf on something in the grass. That bruise only was one of many.

Trying to ignore her bodily discomforts, she took out a pencil and concentrated on the circle. It wasn't quite doing exactly what she wanted it to do yet. "Maybe…" She trailed off as she erased two sigils and replaced them with others. Looking at her changes, she frowned at the page. "Maybe I have to make another new one?" she asked the empty air. It was bugging the hell out of her that this form was taking so long.

For some reason she could do some minor things with her magic with barely a thought to how she was doing it. Like creating little blue sparks of electricity, those she seemed to be able to make on an instinctual level. The light ball wasn't much harder to make. Then there were the things she was making these circles for. Some magic seemed to need a much higher level of control and constraint to make it function properly. The more complicated the magic, the more control it needed. That was easy to understand and very logical, but it was frustrating to figure out the specifics from scratch.

Deciding she really did need to make a new sigil to represent what she needed to make this spell work, she sketched her idea for one below the circle drawing and labeled its purpose so that she could add it to the chart later. After that she added the new sigil to the circle in the necessary places and grinned in satisfaction.

"It needs a name now," Alice mumbled. "How about…Stun shot? ....That'll have to do for now I guess, even if it sounds a bit boring. I'll think of something better later."

Now the only thing to do was to test it again with her actual magic. The roof of her apartment now sported several small scorch marks from her previous experiments with this spell that had so far been of dubious success. She had started working on it as a compliment to her martial arts training when she wondered if she could use magic to defend herself. There had been several oddities in the area over the last week that had made her nervous. She couldn't put her finger on the specifics for her nervousness, but it was still there. That had been enough of an impetus for her to create this spell.

She was about to put her notebook away and pull out her reading for today, this one was a really interesting book she'd found in the school library called: Q_quantum Mechanics-the Basics, _when she heard heavy, deliberate footsteps on the path nearby. Something about the person she couldn't even see made the hairs on her arm want to stand on end and sent an odd tingling through her.

"Where did that damn girl go?!"

Alice flinched at the loud, gruff complaint. The bearer of that deep voice had to be only a short distance away through the trees and brush. Maybe only a few feet even. Glancing at her notebook, she decided to try out one of the first things she had created with magic after the light ball.

"**Looking Glass**," She whispered in a barely audible hiss. As she said the invocation she formed her magic in the manner necessary to form the spell in her mind. Like in her previous uses of the spell, an identical spell circle formed on the ground beneath her body made of dark blue light. When the spell solidified and took hold, she had to brace herself with her arms as many strange, new sensations assaulted her mind. The spell amplified her senses manifold and also cast out a short ranged magical sensory blanket. She had made it originally as an experiment to see what she could do with magic and her own body. It had been an encouraging success, even if it was somewhat limited.

After a moment to get a handle on what the magic was telling her, she was able to get a picture of what was happening through the trees and around her in general. There were actually two men. One of them was heavy-set and wore the boots that had made the scuffing sounds in the path's mulch. The other was much lighter and probably shorter. The magic didn't tell her specific attributes yet, she was still working on that, but it did giver her a basic sense of things. The men were standing close together so they were speaking quieter. Her spell caught the words anyway.

"…can't end good for us if we screw up." Said Thin Man.

"Of course it won't be good for us if we fail this," answered Fat Man. "The Admiral will be royally pissed if we lose the girl. She's supposed to be an important subject for the research weenies."

Admiral? Alice thought too herself. Where these people military?

"Well she's in this park, we know that much." Thin Man muttered sourly.

"True," agreed Fat Man. "The rest of the men have the place surrounded and under surveillance. She came straight here after school and never left, at least according to 2nd squad."

Alice felt another shiver run up her back. Where they looking for her? She didn't think she'd done anything to draw attention from any military people. Sure they were all over the island when they were on leave, but she hadn't pissed any of them off. And what did they mean about a research subject?

With a sudden flash of understanding, her eyes shot open. Her magic, that had to be it. There was no other reason someone would be interested in her. Sure she had a nice athletic figure and decent curves for her age and an attractive half-Japanese face, but these weren't pervert soldiers trying to rape her, they were military men looking for a test subject. That brought to mind all sorts of bad sci-fi movie plots to mind.

"When are the other guys supposed to get here and help us?" asked Thin Man.

"Soon I hope," Fat Man groused roughly. "If this takes too long or gets really messy, the locals will get involved. The worst thing would be if we caught any attention from those American bastards on the base, they're actually well trained soldiers so they could really give us trouble; especially since the girl's the daughter of one of 'em"

'These aren't US soldiers?' Alice thought wonderingly. Then who the hell were they with? They were speaking in English. Then another thought occurred to her. They knew exactly who her dad was. That meant they'd been watching her for a while.

Alice felt something new intrude on her new senses. She heard the crackled of a speaker and she grinned. She could feel radio waves!

"Squad 1, this is Overwatch, be advised, magical signature detected within close range. Target is within sight distance," came the radio call in a calm female voice. Someone on their side could pick her up somehow.

"We're in the fucking trees!" complained Fat Man. "Sight distance is about 2 meters." She heard the slight click of a mike pick-up being depressed. "Acknowledged Overwatch, can you be more specific, we're in a wooded area so sight lines are non-existent."

"Noted squad 1, target is within a fifteen meter radius of your current location. Scanners have shown no movement since they picked up her magic. A cautionary note is being advised by CIC, her currently registered power output is enough to pierce individual defensive measures if the magic is hostile in nature."

"Caution noted," Fat Man acknowledged and then put his radio away again. "Well isn't that nice," he complained again. "They send us to pick up their lab rate and now they tell us she might be a little dangerous. I love the quality of Imperial intelligence these days. At least she's close by."

Imperial Intelligence? What Empire?

"Think she's listening to us right now, Lieutenant?" asked Thin Man.

"Heh," Fat Man harrumphed. "I hadn't thought of that. I wouldn't doubt it though; she's certainly close enough to eavesdrop if Overwatch is right about the distance." Alice heard him clear his throat. "You listening to us out there little missy?" He called out loudly. "I think that you are. You just come right on out here and give yourself up. I don't feel like tromping through these trees to root you out. I'll even treat you really gentle."

Alice snorted in derision. She wasn't stupid enough to give herself over to people who obviously didn't mean her well. And who called people 'little missy' these days? Fat Man could talk all he wanted about being gentle too; she doubted those research people he'd talked about would be inclined to follow that promise. She intended to stay as discreet as possible until she could figure out a way to get the attention of some kind of authorities. The MP's on the base would be the best, they were usually armed even when other soldiers weren't and they were more aggressive than the local police.

As slowly as she could, Alice shifted into a kneeling crouch and dug the toes of her shoes firmly into the rich black soil. She also slipped her notebook back into her bag before quietly slinging up her stuff so that it rested on her back. Once she was sure were she knew where she wanted to go, she raised up a little. Taking calming breathes; she ever so slowly began walking deeper into the trees and away from the two men. After only a few steps her concentration on her spell wavered enough for it to collapse completely, cutting of her eavesdropping. She didn't worry too much about that; she needed to concentrate more on sneaking now.

It was a bit agonizing how little ground she was covering per step, but she dared not try to run or do anything which might generate a lot of sound. She hoped that now that she wasn't using her magic, that the 'Overwatch' people, whoever they were, would not be able to pick her up anymore. After at least ten torturous minutes, she came to a largish structure covered in lichen, moss and other vegetation. Its shattered concrete shell was almost completely green from its long exposure to nature's expansion in this part of the park. During the Second World War it had been a fortified bunker. Unfortunately the local veterans thought badly of the Battle of Okinawa because this tiny island of the chain had been largely ignored by the American forces since it had been sparsely populated and defended. The old men thought they'd been cheated out of the 'honorable battle' the main island's defenders had engaged in. This bunker showed the only attention they had actually drawn; a single navel bombardment from a battleship. The unlucky occupants of this bunker had been the islands only casualties during the entire battle.

The structure was just over seven meters tall in its intact portions, and Alice used the broken parts to climb up and onto the roof. Once on top she almost fell right back off when her right foot slid on a loose portion of dead lichen. She only saved herself by dropping to all fours. Once she got back up to her feet, sporting a brown stain on her knees for the trouble, she crossed to the far side of the bunker where the west side park wall ran. The wall here was in terrible repair since it was probably older than she was and all the trees growing around it hadn't helped it any. After slipping to the top of the stone wall from the bunker she dropped lithely to the ground.

After listening quietly for a full minute to see if her noise had drawn any attention from her aggressors, Alice continued heading south-west. The island was a long thin shape with the mountain/hill in the middle of the land which was just over ten miles long and ran in a SW to NE direction. The far south-western third of the Island belonged to the joint forces, American military base. The base was basically just a huge logistics depot for all the braches of the American military in the area. What was stored there was classified of course, but her father had hinted that the base was used to transship munitions and repair parts and to provide a back-up refueling anchorage for naval ships. It had a smallish overall population of personnel for the land it covered but it had fairly tight security. Alice hoped she could get to the base and rouse its guards against her pursuers. That meant she had to cross over about eight miles of the island and town to get there.

After about five minutes of walking, she stopped at the shaded edge of the trees to crouch again. The trees cut off at the main street of a commercial district. There was an unusual amount of traffic today, both pedestrian and vehicular, so she had no idea if anyone she was looking at was part of the group looking for her. She didn't see anyone standing around in a manner that would suggest that they were searching for something, but she was far from an expert at noticing such things. She did see two American soldiers in PT gear eating at the café down a ways to her left, but they were very obviously engaged in conversation with each other.

Taking a deep breath, she tried to step out casually into the afternoon sun and into the general throng of islanders going about their business. A couple people, especially one older woman, gave her disapproving and suspicious looks, but they went back to their indifference immediately when she did nothing more that seemed odd to them. That was good; if she was unnoticeable and didn't draw attention then she would be able to make it. The street she was one ran the short North-South direction, so at the first intersection she came to she crossed the street and got herself back on track toward the base.

As she walked calmly, Alice almost laughed. Inside she felt tense and paranoid, but the world around her didn't fit that image at all right then. The clear, cloudless and sunny sky bathed the modern structures around her in cheery sunlight and a cooling breeze brought to her the usual scent of the sea. The businesses she walked by, some of them two or three stories tall and most made of a tannish-colored brick and fronted by straight, well maintained sidewalks, all seemed innocent and normal. Well, they would have been normal to her had she been walking like this on any other day. Now though she couldn't help but wonder when the hammer was going to fall.

She was so distracted by her growing paranoia that she almost missed them. Luckily their behavior had been out of place enough that she snapped back to attention right away. A dark black pick-up truck bearing a distinguishing rust stain on its left side drove by her once, then after another few minutes it drove by again; and then a third time. It was the third pass that awoke her to the odd behavior. Sure someone who wasn't a local might drive back and forth if they didn't know where something was, but three times meant people _really_ searching for something. Once the truck turned around a corner behind her, Alice ducked down a slim break between two buildings.

The break ran into a very tight alleyway between the buildings of one street and another. The space was fairly dirty looking, like most such places, but it looked like someone occasionally came back here because all the trash looked recent and light in quantity. She traveled down the alley, paralleling the road, until she caught something interesting out of the corner of her eye. Behind an optometrist shop she saw a slightly rusted length of steel pipe leaning against the wall. It was about a meter and a half long and a look up showed a new pipe of the same length attached to a piping system running along the wall. Blessing the laziness of the plumber, Alice picked up the pipe and hefted it in her hands. It felt comforting there.

That pipe proved it's worth almost immediately. Just as she was passing another break in between two buildings when an arm lunged out toward her followed by the brawny blonde man in dirty work clothes it was attached to. With a grunt of effort the man lurched to grab her arm. Reacting out of instincts her training had ingrained into her, Alice slipped into the same mode of concentration she used with sensei when he worked with her. Without conscious thought her arm whipped the pipe through the air. The opening at the end created a whistling sound until the steel cracked into bone with a sickening crunch.

"Aaaaah!" The man howled and clutched at his badly broken wrist. He glared at her and broke into a stream in unintelligible expletives.

Snapping back to normal for a second Alice stared in surprise at the damage she had caused. She didn't feel any real remorse for the man's injury, he had been trying to kidnap her after all, but she did feel surprise at how easy it had been to do it. She had half expected him to give some kind of counter or block like sensei would have, but instead she had hit him exactly where she'd wanted too. Sensei always tried to tell his students how deadly or dangerous martial arts could actually be to other human beings outside of restrained sparring matches, but this was the first time she had seen the actual real world results it could cause.

When the man made to came after her again despite his injuries, Alice broke into a run and tore down the rest of the alleyway. When she came to a street again she ran back over to the westbound street she'd been on before and continued down it. Since she'd been found now Alice hoped that the other people on the street would provide enough of a reason for her attackers to stay away. Her hopes drained away quickly when she got to the next cross street.

There she watched as the black truck she had seen rolled to a stop about thirty feet in front of her, forcing Alice to slow to a halt. The door opened and a well muscled man with a dark tan and mature, older facial features stepped out onto the sidewalk. He had a day old growth of facial hair and what looked to be a permanent frown. Right away people started moving away from him with loud exclamations. They did so because he was carrying what was obviously an assault rifle of some kind. He was also wearing what looked to be black and grey body armor covered in a great many small, black tiles. Alice could see what looked like wiring or tubes running to all the plates. His expression was stormy and locked onto her face.

Without even bothering to look where he was aiming, the man pointed the rifle off to his left and fired of a long, and extremely loud burst. The screaming of the suddenly panicked pedestrians almost covered up the sound of the bullets tearing deep holes in the front wall of a business across the street from Alice. Those holes where barely above the heads of the people on that side. As everyone tried to run away from what to them was an obviously crazy gunman running amuck, Alice stood rooted in fear. Not just fear for herself though, she was equally worried now that this guy would start shooting at people to get to her and she didn't want their blood on her conscience.

"Now, that's much better," the man said in a slow, deliberate rumble. "We now have permission to do whatever we need to, to take you in, girl. You don't want us doing anything unnecessary now do you?"

"No," Alice responded through angry, clenched teeth. She hated that these people would be so willing to just casually harm other random people.

"Good," the man nodded in satisfaction.

Alice heard another vehicle come up and stop behind her and a quick glance showed four more guys dressed like this one getting out of a large, run down sedan.

"See?" the man said with a gesture toward the newcomers. "There's no way you're getting out of here. Just kneel where you are and after you are secured we'll be on our way with no more fuss. You understand me, Alice?"

Alice flinched at the use of her name. She didn't like such familiarity, even as little as this was, coming from these wackos. Her mind also raced madly to come up with something, anything really, to get out of this. She didn't want to be poked at and possibly tortured by these people, but she couldn't think of anything—

Alice's eye flared open as she suddenly remembered what she had been working on before all this began. Her new spell, the one she'd made as a possible self defense measure, it might do the trick if worked correctly.

Licking her lips nervously, Alice slowly raised her right hand. Since she was still turned so that she could see both groups of enemies, this meant that she aimed at the group of four enemy soldiers. Her motion stopped their cautious approached toward her and they eyed her warily with guns still pointed at the ground, fingers also still along the gun for safety. That meant they probably weren't allowed to shoot her. She hoped that was the case anyway.

Bringing her new spell into her mind, Alice drew deeply on her power. She would rather she used too much magic than to little and end up captured, so she went for overkill. Beneath her feet and also in front of her hand appeared her magic circle in the usual dark blue light, the very one she had worked on in the park. She felt the new additions she'd made and felt a remote satisfaction that they'd improved things so far.

She heard, "Warning: dangerous energy spike detected," come from all the radios the men carried. She smiled at the apprehensive looks they now gave her.

"**Stun Shot!" **Like in her practices on the roof, an ovoid shape of dark blue coalesced in front of her extended hand. She felt her power rush into that ovoid thing and it throbbed dangerously. When she felt she'd added enough she released it. Like a ball hit by a bat, the dark blue light blob rocketed away from her with a loud whoomf of displaced air caused by inefficiencies in her spell. The soldier she'd aimed at tried to do something defensive with his hand but he was far too slow, the blue light slammed into his chest. There was a tremendous crack-snap sound as her spell released it's energies into her target's body. Like a rag doll, the man was thrown backwards where he landed with a dull thud. The cloth front of his armor smoldered into flames between the weird tiles.

'Damn!' Alice thought, just as stunned as the soldiers seemed to be. The spell was supposed to forcefully stun and to overwhelm an opponent's senses through their nervous system. Her overloaded shot had done much more than that.

One of the soldiers rushed to the fallen man and hurriedly patted out the small fire on the downed man's armor, and then he checked for vitals.

"He's barely alive," the soldier said in an angry snap, glaring past her toward the more senior, lone soldier to Alice's left. "He'll die soon if he's not treated."

Alice felt her mouth go absolutely dry. She'd almost killed a man! And he might well die if the soldier was speaking the truth. Again she didn't feel much remorse for the specific individual involved, but it made her blood run cold to think she's almost become a killer, even if it was in self-defense. That was a line she didn't know if she could consciously cross.

"They did say she might be dangerous," the older soldier said slowly, apparently unimpressed. "He should have had his armor activated."

Alice watched as the remaining soldiers all hurriedly touched something on their belts. When they did so, the tiles on their combat armor shimmered once and then went back to being black, plastic looking things.

"That was rather foolish of you," the soldier continued on. "There's no point in resisting. That was just a lucky shot due to lax behavior on that man's part. You can't do it again."

Despite knowing that the speech was intended to intimidate her, Alice felt a knife of fear slip into her. She needed to get past the lone man, but for some reason she knew he would be more dangerous than the three. She was also alone since anyone with a thinking brain was probably getting as far away from the fight as possible. She hoped someone had at least called the police.

Raising her left hand now with the pipe still in it, Alice brought the spell up again, this time she intended to try and take out the more dangerous leader that was blocking her escape route.

"That's not going to—"

The man cutoff as another loud whoomf sounded out from Alice's second shot. Alice's eye's flared in incredulity as the man whacked her projectile with a backhanded slap of his free hand. It shot off at a wild angle and then slammed into a brick wall to some business. The spell detonated there and tore a respectable sized hole. Alice saw the flickering remnant of some kind of barrier on the man's hand.

He has a shield! Alice thought furiously. Why hadn't she thought of that too?

"I told you that this is futile," The man told her in clear exasperation. "You have no idea how overpowered you are right now."

He took several steps forward until he stood between the glass front of a patisserie and a parked car. He stood there a moment and stared hard into Alice's eyes.

"This is what you are trying to fight against girl," he growled in a chastising tone. The soldier shouldered his weapon and then raised both arms straight out to his sides. Alice watched as a weird foggy light rippled over the man's body and collected into the palms of his hands. There the light collapsed into bright pinpricks that were almost too bright to look at.

Alice stared in stunned horror as those two lights exploded violently outward in tremendous cone-like blasts that gave out a near-deafening roar. The car was ripped of the road and flung hard into the building across the street with a disturbing crunch where it then fell as burning, shattered wreck. On his other side, the shop front was also blasted in by an identical explosion that gutted and ignited the place instantaneously; glass and other material flew in every direction. When the man took two more steps forward as he calmly dropped his arms, devastation lay behind him. He then casually pulled something slim from his armor's backpack, stuck it his belt, pulled out another from the opposite side of the belt and then slid that into the back pack. In all it had taken no more than a minute.

"I think you understand what I can do," The man, still in that casual tone. It was beginning to aggravate Alice a little that he could be so calm after doing that. "Kneel and surrender to me and you won't get hurt."

Alice felt her panic returning. She was far outclassed with magic it seemed and she doubted they'd let her get in range to hit them with the pipe. With the panic there was also anger. So much that it would have startled her at any other moment. Normally she thought of herself as a calm and collected girl, but right now she felt nothing but rage and fear boiling her veins.

She had to do something they wouldn't expect; something that would give her even a slight chance at escape. She couldn't rely on her magic, she only really knew five spells so far; her electric shock, her sensory enhancer, her stun shot, a really wonky telekinesis spell that barely worked, and one utilitarian spell that wouldn't do anything helpful at the moment. She could perhaps, Alice thought, her mind racing quickly. Combine her magic and her martial arts training together.

Alice calmed herself and slowed her breathing back to even measure breathes. Shifting her feet, she placed herself into a ready stance she had learned. The leader guy cocked an eyebrow at her, but Alice ignored it and focused her mind on the three remaining cronies. She took in everything about them down to the smallest detail. Then when her mind entered back into the dead calm she held onto during sparing matches, she snapped into violence.

She went from a human statue to a striking snake in the span of a heartbeat. Three strides took her into range and without hesitation she woke her shock spell to the hand holding the pipe. Using her forward moment to add to her natural strength, Alice swung that pipe in a powerful but controlled swing toward the closest man's stomach. Alice felt the impact through the rough steel and smelled the rank ozone of her spell's discharge, but she continued on. It was in the opposite direction she had needed to go before so her run caught her opponents as off guard as she had hoped. Alice knew she had no chance against the leader, so the small fry had been her only chance.

"Do it."

Alice heard those two calm words from the leader and they were immediately followed by another terrible roar. Alice was flung off of her feet and thrown through the air with horrible velocity. Before her mind could even comprehend what was happening Alice slammed back first into the front of another parked vehicle.

Alice's vision blanked for a moment as she fought to stay conscious through the pain radiating from every part of her body. She could only breathe in a ragged hiss and every time she did so a lance of fire shot through her chest. She was sure she must have broken a rib or two. She also couldn't feel her right arm any more and that lack of feeling frightened her so much more than the pain. She knew from basic first aid that that was never a good sign. When she could finally see again and her eyes resumed communicating with her brain, Alice lifted her head from the crumpled hood of the car where she lay and stared upside down at the approaching soldiers. All four of them stared at her without any hint of emotion on their faces.

"Once more, but with very low power," The leader commanded.

Alice watched in mounting horror as one of the soldiers raised his arm toward her. She watched the light coalesce in his palm.

"Please…don't…k—"

Alice's words were cut of as a yet another blast sent her into un-sensing oblivion.

*****

Nanoha flew through the sky at the fastest speed she could. Below her the ocean waves sped by in a blur. Flying well over her own altitude Nanoha could feel Fate flying at an even greater speed than she.

There was need for their haste. Not ten minutes ago while she was playing a game with her daughter, Vivio and her mother, the TSA ship _Heibao_ had opened an emergency communication channel to her. Despite being on vacation she had taken the call immediately. The humor she'd felt at her mother's surprise from seeing a comm.. screen appear in mid air had fled as soon as the ship's captain had told her what was going on.

Multiple strike parties using magic had attacked and then abducted a large number of young people all over the globe in an almost simultaneous strike. Even more disturbing than that was the abduction that was occurring nearer to her home city. On an island near Okinawa a small scale magical battle had broken out between the attackers and their victim. Both parties had used magic that could be strong enough to kill in their opening salvos. That had tripped the alarms aboard the scout ship.

Unfortunately they didn't have nearly enough enforcers to deal with all the incidents that were occurring. Then they'd caught a break. When the two abductions occurring in Japan, including the one that had fought back with magic near Okinawa, had subdued their targets they had been teleported to the same location. The _Heibao _searchers had traced those with ease.

Now she was racing to that location to rescue those victims while Fate watched and guarded her from above. They also needed to talk to the local girl who'd used magic to defend herself afterwards. Such power was dangerous without training.

*****

Howard Rhoads was not a happy man. His thin eyebrows were set into their usual displeased V as his eyes glared out at the road in front of him. He wasn't supposed to be on duty at the moment and he was far from pleased at the vague information he'd been given prior to leaving the base. He was supposed to be meeting up with his daughter Alice in an hour for dinner. It wasn't often that they got to sit down and eat together and he resented something intruding on that.

The drive through the island roads weren't helping his mood either. It seemed as if every car on the island was conspiring to slow him down. Almost as soon as he'd left the base in the Marine Humvee he'd hit an absurd amount of traffic. Most people on the island never used the vehicles they owned except in the case of work related tasks since distances were always short. But today it seemed as if every single car and truck on the island was out in force. Not only that, there were people walking around everywhere too. They seemed to be in a state of almost panic and fear. That boded badly for what he was being called out for. As Howard drove down the main thoroughfare toward his destination, he recalled again what he'd been told.

A half hour ago while he was finishing up the inspection and lockdown detail for the newly arrived Patriot missile systems that had shown up that morning, he'd gotten a very terse and strict order from the base commander to move his ass out to the city. All he had been told was that there had been some sort of outbreak in violence involving military weaponry. It was only his problem if the violence was caused by foreign parties and not Americans so he had to assume that it was something along these lines.

When he turned the last corner he had to almost slam on the breaks to keep from running into a wooden barricade set across the road in front of him. But that was not the most important thing in his mind right then. He forgot all about his anger as he took in the sight sitting in front of him. A small, usually clean and friendly looking commercial district he'd driven through almost every day he'd been stationed on this island lay in shambles between this cross street and the next. There were also Marines and Army MP's all over the place along with a few local police officers. A team of army firemen were spraying water into the broken hole of a shop front.

Howard turned off the engine of his vehicle and almost numbly stepped out into the street. After giving his ID to the guards stationed at the barricade, he walked into the chaos of shouting men and destroyed civilian property.

"Howard!"

He turned slightly at the call and saw his superior walking towards him along with his personal aide who was carrying a cardboard box. That was another shock. Brigadier General Alistair Tiven, the base's commander, was not supposed to be at the site of an incident like this. In fact the tall, rough hewn man with the slight flecking of gray in his brown hair should be back in on base coordinating things. It was Howard's job to ascertain the threat and relay the information back to command so that the proper response could be given or, given an immediate attack, it was his job to respond to it. Seeing the man here now meant that things were very bad or very unusual.

"General," Howard saluted his commander with the casualness of their long association together. "I came out as quick as I could. I didn't expect to see you on site like this."

"You mean 'why did I call you here if you're already here?' don't you?" Tiven said with a small chuckle. "I know this is your place and not mine Howard, but I felt a sense of duty for both personal and professional reasons to meet you here."

That's certainly ominous Howard thought. Out loud he said,"I suppose that's fine general, this seems to be a major incident."

"You have no idea how major, Howard," Tiven said, suddenly sobering. "What you see around you was caused by only five men, and one teenage girl."

Howard twitched at the last. "A teenage girl? How?"

"That doesn't have an easy explanation I'm afraid," Tiven sighed, "especially for you."

"For me?" Howard asked, feeling a chill brush over him.

"Jason, show him." Tiven said to his aide while never taking his eyes off of Howard.

"Yes sir," Jason answered emotionlessly. The young lieutenant reached into the box with one hand while balancing it on the other and drew out a smallish black and gray book-bag. For a moment it didn't penetrate Howard's brain, what exactly he was looking at. At first it just appeared to be a bag like any teenager on the island might carry, if somewhat torn and charred now. Then he felt his breathe catch.

"Alice?" he said, needing confirmation.

"I'm sorry Howard, but it seems like your daughter was involved with what happened here today," Tiven said with genuine remorse heavy in his voice. "An eyewitness has told us that she was carried off by the men who did this."

"W-what happened? Who did this?" Howard asked, feeling more unstable than he'd ever felt in his life. Who would take Alice from him?

"We don't know who did this at all, but as for what happened," Tiven shook his head. "It's going to sound absolutely insane." He pointed down the road toward an apartment above a realtor's office. "The owner of that business watched the entire thing unfold from his apartment. He says two groups showed up here, one man by himself and then four others shortly after the initial guy fired of a burst of rounds into the wall over there to scare away the civilians." Howard only took a short glance at the chipped and holed brick.

"Then after the others got here, the first guy, who seemed to be the leader, told Alice to surrender and give herself up to him. Alice naturally refused to do any such thing."

Howard wasn't surprised by that. Alice always thought and claimed that she was a calm and logical person, but she was as stubborn and independent as they came. He'd always seen how Alice got her back up anytime someone tried to force her to do anything.

"Then," Tiven continued. "According to our witness, Alice shot something that glowed with a dark blue light at the group of four that made a substantial amount of noise. It struck one man with apparently considerable force. So much so that one of his fellows had to check if he was even alive. From what the witness overheard it was a bare thing that the man did so."

Howard felt confused. "You said Alice attacked _them_? With what?"

"I'll get to that in a moment," Tiven answered. "After that success, the leader called Alice a fool or something along those lines. She attacked him next. Apparently he had some defense against Alice's attack because our witness says the leader simply slapped it aside so that it hit that wall over yonder and punched that pretty hole you can see there."

Howard looked over at the indicated wall and stared at the hole. It was raged and at least three feet across. Fiberglass insulation could be se through it and that looked distinctly singed. How had Alice done it?

"The leader apparently hadn't been very amused by Alice's continued defiance. He was the one who destroyed that shop and shot that car across the street in one single attack to show his power. The witness says that an explosion of some kind erupted from both his hands, doing everything you see there. There was enough force behind that to crack the asphalt in the road and enough heat to ignite the shop. After which he again called for her surrender. Alice instead tried to make a run for it."

"And it went badly?" Howard asked with a slight cringe, hearing the change in his superior's tone.

"Yes, it seems that they anticipated that she might try and slip past them. Alice tried to attack one of the soldiers with a length of pipe she'd been holding on to as a distraction, but it didn't work. Out witness says that she made it only a couple strides before the leader ordered his men to take her down. One of the soldiers uses a lower powered version of the leader's attack on her and blasted her into that car over there. That's her blood on the hood.

"Oh god," Howard said softly, his anger rising against the bastard that had done such a thing to his daughter. "What happened? Is she...dead?"

"It doesn't seem so," Tiven said slowly. "But it's not much better. Alice was still conscious after that attack, so they did it again. Our witness said the sight of her after that made him vomit. The soldiers then picked up her limp body and threw it into the back of the leader's truck and they all drove off."

"There's no clue at all who did this?" Howard asked. He knew his voice carried a dangerous hint of his inner parental rage, but he had to ask the questions the right way.

"No!" Howard twitched at the angry vehemence in his commander's voice. "None at all. We've got an excellent description of all the individuals and their gear, but none of it matches anything we know of. If I knew I'd already be calling for the SEALS stationed over on Okinawa."

"Does that mean you've already reported everything?"

"Yes, and we have approval from the Pentagon to get assistance from the Navy to turn these people into fish food if we find them. They were pretty quick about that once they saw that this incident has already leaked out to the international press. Out witness talked to a few others before he talked to me."

Howard winced mentally. The public eye could make this much more difficult.

"The worst thing is," Tiven went on, "is that even the more fantastical parts have gotten out. Well, that and the fact that according to command, this was one of many such abductions that took place today."

"Fantastical? You mean that part about Alice attacking the soldiers with something?"

"Yes, I didn't use the word earlier, but the witness called what both Alice and the soldier did, magic. He was very emphatic about it too."

"Magic?!" Howard asked incredulously. "That's obviously impossible. They just had weapons of some kind that the witness didn't understand, though I don't know why Alice would—"

"Howard!" Tiven growled cutting him off.

"Yes sir?"

"Normally I would agree with you and I'd call such nonsense what it was, but it looks like this is something much different."

Something in Alistair's voice made Howard nervous. "How so sir?"

"Because of this," Tiven reached for Alice's bag, took it from his aide's hands and opened it. From within he withdrew a well used looking notebook. He extended it toward Howard, so he took it. "Read the title."

"Alice's Magic Experiments: Vol. 2," Howard read as instructed, though in a stunned tone. Unable to help himself Howard opened the notebook to see what it contained. His eyebrows tried to rise into his receding hairline more and more with every page he skimmed over.

"As you can see, that notebook contains an extremely exhaustive and detailed record of something your daughter was working on, Howard." Tiven said thoughtfully. "I'm not the greatest mind at math, but it is clear to me that all those equations Alice recorded there do mean something. There is also an entire table containing a unique, private symbol set that Alice devised solely for this experiment of hers. The most interesting thing in there is the two very detailed records she wrote about two different 'spells'. One of them, the 'Stun Shot,' sounds very much like what the witness said she used against the soldiers and that very minutely detailed circle of symbols and shapes is very like the one our witness described appearing beneath Alice's feet during the fight."

Howard's hands shook as he flipped through page after impossible page of notes in his daughter's clean handwriting. He couldn't make any sense of the equations either, but the words seem to bore into his skull. If what he was reading was true, than his daughter really had done something truly unique and unreal. "You're sure the witness described it exactly like this?" He asked, pointing at the page containing the self-defense spell.

"Yes, almost exactly," Tiven nodded. "The reality seemed to have packed a bit more of a punch that described there, but it did function as written. Does this mean you never noticed anything like this before now?"

"No," Howard answered promptly. "Alice has always been an independent kind of girl. She has had almost perfect grades and never gets in trouble so I've never intruded on her privacy. The experimenting part isn't exactly a surprise since it fits her personality, but I've never seen anything that looked like magic. There are scorch marks on the roof of our building, but I thought those were from her messing around with firecrackers or something."

"Well, even if you didn't notice, it seems that someone certainly did," Tiven said slowly. "It can't be a coincidence that a military unit would attack a teenage girl at random. Those guys targeted her specifically. It's only a guess, but I'd say this magic of hers was the reason."

"I can't argue with that logic sir," Howard said in agreement. "But when she is returned, what will you do to her?" He couldn't help but slip a hint of a threat into his voice.

"Nothing like your thinking Howard," Tiven laughed hoarsely. "I'd protect her and then write her a letter of recommendation to whatever University she wants. That daughter of yours has stumbled onto something that could be huge. I wouldn't doubt that there would be plenty of people who would be willing to fund these experiments of hers. You've watched one to many military conspiracy movies if you're thinking that I'd condone turning a girl into an unwilling lab rat."

"Sorry about that sir," Howard sighed. "I'm just worried about her. Do we at least know where they went from here?"

"Partly," Tiven acknowledged. "But that's just as confusing as the rest of this. We found the truck they used near the East marina, but when our people asked those in the area if they'd seen anything they just said a group of men carried something into a warehouse nearby. Then after they entered there was a flash of light in the windows, and then that's it."

"You're saying they vanished?" Howard asked his anger rising back up. "Then how the hell am I supposed to get her back?!"

"I don't know that yet, Howard," Tiven said gravely and looked him in the eye. "But I can promise you that when we _do_ find them. We'll hit them with the very best hammer the Marine Corp. can give us. You may be my subordinate, but I consider you a friend as well after all the years we've worked together. You'll get her back. And if the time comes, you'll have command of the troops that take these people out; that I can promise you."

Thank you, Sir."

**End 1**

**Chapter 2: Revelations and Power**

For Alice, awareness was a painful and slow return to consciousness. It was pain that first told her that she was indeed still alive. At first she wasn't aware of much more than her body. She felt like she'd been cooked in an oven and then beaten with mallets. Her whole body felt prickly as if every inch if her skin had been burned. Her right arm throbbed up until her elbow; past that she could feel nothing still. There was also still the sharp stabs that came with every breathe she took.

Other than that she didn't know what was going on. Her body seemed to refuse to let her awaken fully, as if it knew that she wasn't ready to face her injuries. The world around during her brief partial resurfacings was just a fog of sounds. She heard the sounds of men, lots of men, around her and near her. There was also the sound and deep vibration of machinery of some kind, powerful machines that made whatever surface she laid on quiver slightly.

The last hint of what was around her confused her at first. First she felt warmth, as if she had been covered by a thick blanket. Then there was this soothing touch. It felt like a hand resting on her head that occasionally moved to stroke through her hair with gentle strokes. That touch comforted Alice in a way she didn't understand in her partial consciousness. She wanted so badly for that hand to wipe away her pain, but she was content with what it offered already. The touch was accompanied by a voice. Alice wasn't aware enough to understand any words, but the tone and tenor made her feel a little peaceful inside. Occasionally that voice shifted into a mumbled singing or humming and that always seemed to loosen her pain's grip and send her back to her unfeeling sleep.

Now though it was different. She didn't want to go back to sleep again. She had to know what was happening to her. She couldn't just lie around forever. When she again felt those soothing hands upon her, she fought against her body's desire to go back to sleep. Disobeying that impulse, she tried to make her eyes open.

"No…no…you mustn't wake up!" Alice paused in her struggles. It was the first time she'd been able to understand the voice that had been speaking to her. It was a high, female voice and it sounded very worried. So much so that Alice almost gave into it. But she decided she had to ignore it.

With an effort of will she finally cracked her eyes open. Then as she came fully to consciousness, all her pains and aches came crashing home again. "Ahhh!" She couldn't help crying out. It was horrible how much she hurt. It took a very long time for Alice to stop screaming. When she did she found that her face was being hugged into someone's stomach. Even her face hurt as it pressed against soft flesh.

When she finally calmed herself back down Alice realized that she was lying on her back with her head resting in someone's lap. She pulled her head out of that same someone's stomach and looked up into two very concerned looking brown eyes. Those eyes shimmered with unborn tears and slight streaks showed the trails of those that had escaped. They were set into the very young face of a girl who looked somewhere around her own age. She had a pretty round-cheeked face framed by long, curly and chestnut brown hair that looked like it would be silky to the touch. She looked to wearing a blue on white school uniform. The girl also looked to be incredibly sad.

Alice felt something and realized that the girl had put one hand on her stomach and the other rested lightly on her forehead, the feeling had been a finger of the latter hand absently curling her own black hair from her face.

"You really shouldn't haven woken up yet." The girl said, shaking her head sadly. "There's nothing good for you to be awake for."

"W…," Alice licked her dry, cracked lips and swallowed before she tried to speak again. "Who are you?"

"I'm Azusa Higa," Azusa answered with a small smile. "I'd say that it's nice to meet you, but this is not a very nice place."

"Nice to meet you anyways," Alice smiled back up at her. "I'm Alice Rhoads."

"An English name? You're American? But you've been speaking Japanese now and in your sleep?"

Alice understood the confusion; she definitely favored her Japanese mother in her appearance. "I'm half-Japanese, and I'm an American, but I've been living on Okinawa. Ach!" Alice felt sharps stabs of pain throughout her body as she tried to rise up; she also felt things restricting her movement.

"No!" Azusa's admonishment was followed by a firm hand pushing Alice back down onto the girl's lap. "You shouldn't move, you got hurt really badly and those people just threw you in here without treating you. They gave me some bandages, but I don't know if what I did for you will be enough."

So that's what restricted my movement, Alice thought, she had bandages all over her body. That didn't speak well for her condition. She tried to turn her head to the right to see what was wrong with her arm.

"Don't Look!" Before Alice had turned her head even a couple of degrees, Azusa's hand on her forehead moved in front of her eyes. "You don't want to see that yet, it's…really bad."

Alice shivered at Azusa's tone. It had to be pretty horrible if the girl didn't want her to even look. Instead she turned her head the other way to look out at her surroundings. She saw she was in a metal, military-style bunk in a very empty room. The walls seemed to be made of metal and were painted a drab green color. The floor, also metal, had that diamond texturing to it. Otherwise there was nothing else in here with them except a jail type toilet in the far corner without a sink to wash their hands.

"So…we're both prisoners," Alice said softly. "This really sucks."

"That's more than a bit of understatement," Azusa replied with a small laugh. "I at least came here in one piece…well sort of."

Alice looked back up at the dwindling tone in Azusa's voice as she ended her statement. "What do you mean 'sort of'?"

"They took me when I was leaving my school in Kyoto," Azusa began quietly. "I had just got into the car for the drive home and we'd just started to pull away from the curb. A bunch of them, I don't know how many, came bursting out the back of a box truck next to us and shot at the hood of our car. My driver, a servant of my family, tried to make a run for it by punching the gas, but it didn't do anything. The engine just sputtered and died. When they came to the car to take me my driver tried to protect me, but they didn't even hesitate to shoot him in the leg. I heard him screaming when they dragged me into the truck but there was nothing I could do. I don't know how to fight."

"Well, I do know how to fight and look how I turned out," Alice said to her. "There was probably nothing you could have done that wouldn't have just made it worse. If you had gotten hurt, than who would have helped me?" Alice tried to lighten her voice to distract Azusa.

"I didn't do very much," Azusa argued. "I just wrapped the bandages to where you were bleeding."

"That's not the only thing you did, I heard your singing and felt your hands. That was a lot of help too." Alice smiled at the slight blush that tinged Azusa's cheeks. "You said the guy was your driver, are you from a rich family or something?"

"Mmmm…something like that. Azusa said guardedly

Alice made a mental note that Azusa didn't want to talk about her family. She didn't know why of course, but that didn't matter, there just wasn't any point in trying to forcefully interrogate her cell-mate.

"So what did they grab you for?" Alice asked, changing the subject slightly.

Azusa frowned and looked a little uncomfortable. "I…They said I could do things. The man that was in charge of grabbing me said I was important for something."

"Can you do things?" Alice asked with interest. "It's why they grabbed me too."

"I don't really know about _doing_ things, but I've always had a weird ability to know about things."

"Know about things? Like what?"

"Well, for example I could always tell you exactly how many people where in the house, or how many planes were in the area at the time. And I've never needed a watch. I can always tell what time it is without one."

"They want you because you can use magic, just like me," Alice informed her. "I wonder if anyone else got taken."

"Magic?!" Alice heard the incredulousness in that exclamation.

"Yeah magic," Alice gave a small laugh. "Let me show you."

Alice raised her left arm up. She frowned at the bright orange shirt she saw she was wearing. Couldn't her jailers have found less cliché prisoner clothes? Ignoring that for now, she focused her mind on her light-ball spell. As soon as she felt the magic flow from her center something seemed to slam into her chest. It took her a second to even realize that the screaming she was hearing was coming from her own throat.

"Alice? What's wrong?!"

Azusa's panicky voice gave Alice something else to focus on. After a few moments the pain seemed to dissolve away.

"Are you ok?"

"I think so," Alice replied. "That really hurt though."

"What did you try to do?"

"I was going to show you a light ball spell that I made, but as soon as the power flowed, wham, tazer to the heart."

"Oh! I forgot about that."

Alice frowned at the sheepish tone. "Forgot what?"

"Uh, our captors said that if we tried anything funny we'd regret it immediately. One old guy said to tell you as soon as you woke because he said you were probably a trouble maker. I think they were talking about that thing they put in your chest."

"My chest?" Alice placed her hand just above her breasts where the pain had originated. Under the stiff fabric of her shirt was something hard and metallic feeling in the shape of a disk. The disk had some sort of raised edge to it. She pulled experimentally on it, but it didn't budge at all. It was as if it was attached to her bones. "Do you have one too Azusa?"

"No, they said I didn't need one yet."

Alice sighed. "Great, they stuck a fancy shock collar on me to make sure I can't fight back anymore."

"You really fought them?" Alice asked excitedly. "One of the guards seemed to be a little frightened of you."

"Maybe he was on the team that grabbed me," Alice mused aloud. "Yeah, I kinda fought a little, but it didn't really do anything except get me pounded into a pulp like this." She stopped and frowned at Azusa. "Are you sure I shouldn't look at my right arm?"

Azusa nodded with a frown again. "I think it would be best that you didn't. It…it almost made me a little sick when I had to look at it to wrap it up. You're…probably going to lose it if we get out of this alive."

Alice felt a little chill pass through her at the confirmation of her fears. She knew before that it couldn't be good that she couldn't feel it at all. It was a bit horrifying to know that she was going to be an amputee soon. She closed her eyes and tried not to think about the possible repercussions of that.

Azusa started stroking her hair again. "You should go back to sleep, Alice. They have been waiting for you to wake for some reason so it wouldn't be good if they saw you up now. I can wake you when they bring food again."

Alice heard Azusa start humming a song again. It was a soothing and peaceful song. Against her will, darkness closed in on her until only that song remained.

******

"_**Target approaching**_."

Right on the heals of Raising Heart's announcement, Nanoha saw the shapes of several large ships break over the horizon in front of her. As she rocketed toward them she was able to take a quick count. There were a total of nine ships. Each was identical to the others for the most part. They looked like enormous and slightly rusted cargo ships. Each of the behemoths had to be over 300 meters in length. The simple fact that nine such ships were sailing in formation was an indicator for suspicion.

"_Setting up the containment barrier,"_ came the telepathic call from Fate. A moment later Nanoha saw the barrier bloom into existence and expand outward from Fate's location. This barrier had a slight modification to it that keeps it permanently centered on Fate. This way they could still use the containment on a moving ship weighing thousands of tons. If it had been a static barrier, that much mass would have simply torn its way out by brute force.

Just as the barrier was about to envelope the ships below, it shattered and vanished. A slight wavering in the air told the tale of what happened to the barrier.

"_They have a strong protective field set up over each ship," _Nanoha sent up to Fate. "_How about a shot over their bow instead?"_

In reply Nanoha saw bright points of light take form around Fate. Then the multitude of Phalanx Shift bolts rained down onto the formation of ships. They punched through the enemy fields and slammed into the ocean a short distance behind the crew cab of each vessel. The enormous plumes of water thrown up by the warning shot showered the ships.

Nanoha worked a minor spell known to almost every TSAB mage. It was a spell to amplify her voice. It also made a huge screen with her image appear over the cargo hatches of each ship. "This is Time-Space Administration Bureau mage, Nanoha Takamatchi. You are to surrender immediately and turn over all kidnapped victims to our care. Your actions have violated many laws within our jurisdiction so you must face penal action. This is your only warning before we use force."

*****

"…your only warning before we use force."

Admiral Zander Ravant stared out of the bridge windows at the image floating above his ships cargo hatches. It was such a young face to match the power his sensors were registering. And there was a second one flying well above his makeshift fleet too.

"So that's a Bureau mage huh?" he said aloud. "Not so impressive to look at really."

"They did punch through our shields without any trouble, sir."

Zander turned and raised a blonde eyebrow at Major Ramorta who stood next to his chair. The man was a depressingly unflappable fellow, though he supposed the guy had to be when he was in charge of the capture teams. He'd heard Ramorta had almost lost a man taking the today's targets but the Major hadn't even twitched when he gave the report.

"You're right about that," he said. "So we can't really ignore them."

"We can launch the Shiv's at any time."

"I know that Major, I can read the status bars too." He replied lightly. "I was just wondering what kind of power these people actually have at their disposal. They haven't poked their noses into our neck of the Multiverse yet so information on them is minimal."

"They have enough resources to have multiple ships in the system at the same time when this world is clearly not very important to them," Ramorta replied. "We've also picked up a number of their operatives moving around as well and all of them have been well above acolyte levels in terms of power. That kind of casual use speaks volumes for what we haven't seen."

"Are you saying the Emperor was wrong to try and invade this world again?" Zander smirked.

"No sir," Ramorta answered calmly. "The Emperor's choices are his own and not for me to judge but to execute. However, it may be more difficult to accomplish than the original estimates projected. In fact, the locals have, at least partially, become aware of our existence far earlier than planned thanks to the latest round of abductions."

"Annoying but true," Zander sighed. "That's why I ordered the early execution of next phase. Those messes in Japan were the worst, but the teams are getting too violent for us to stay underground anymore. The research group is going to have to be content with what we've got so far. Go ahead and launch the fighters."

"Yes sir."

"How much of a charge remains for the shift engines?"

"There's only four percent left before we can leave sir. The only ship left is the one carrying the prisoners."

"Good, just tell the fighter crews to hold those two off for five minutes and we'll be good."

"Yes, sir."

"Good, dismissed."

******

**Same Time, Washington D.C.**

Senator Jason Alverez couldn't stop his left leg from twitching nervously. He'd never actually expected this day to come. He'd thought his grandfather's old stories about their family belonging to the remnants of a great empire had been the ramblings of demented old man.

When his father had introduced him to the other families he'd thought it was just a gimmick put on for a club of rich people. Back then it had been all drinking and carousing while the older generations told them stories of people that couldn't possibly have existed. But then, after his father died, things changed.

The heads of all the families came to his house and they told him everything and showed him everything. He'd been forced to see the truth of their stories. They also told him that he had the responsibility to carry on their work. They forced him into government work where he was supposed to try and guide things to their liking.

It hadn't been a bad life really, but it had always grated to be under the heel of the others. He knew for a long while that they'd one day tell him to do something that he wouldn't understand. If he refused he'd simply disappear one day, the victim of an assignation by some crazed lunatic who'd actually be a member of the organization.

Now he sat in an office of the Capital building with a briefcase handed to him an hour before by a man who'd made it entirely clear that Jason would be killed on the spot if he didn't take it, so he did. He had no idea what it was for. He'd tried opening it but it seemed to be fused shut. It hadn't set of the metal, explosive or chemical sensors on his way in either.

Just as he was about to stand an make his way to today's session he heard a sharp click from the direction of his hand. He looked down just an impossibly bright light cut off his fears forever.

*****


	2. Empire

**Somewhere over the Pacific**

Nanoha rocketed upwards into the afternoon sky. Beneath her a respectable salvo of missiles boiled up after her; each seeking her life. She hadn't really expected that the people aboard the ships would surrender immediately, but it was slightly annoying to have them answer her demands this way.

"**Axel Shooter."**

Responding to her mental request to Raising Heart, a multitude of pink projectiles formed in the air around her. With her magic, she carefully targeted the oncoming missiles, assigning her shots so that they'd be as effective as possible.

"Shoot!"

The spell ripped away from her like an exploding flower. As soon as she spell was underway she jinked hard and then angled her trajectory toward Fate. If they were going to be attacked then it was much better for them to face it together. That way they could each handle half the threats. Below her there was a tremendous concussion and that marked the destruction of the missiles. The bare edge of one blasts brushed against her and her eyebrows shot up in surprise.

"Fate!" she called as she neared her partner. "Those weren't normal missiles."

Fate looked at her with concern, "How were they different?"

"The missiles were mass based, but the warheads were magical. I felt the last one against my barrier." They shared a thoughtful frown for a moment and then they both turned to regard the small fleet. "Something's happening down there," she said softly.

It took a moment to figure out what she was seeing. The great, enormous hatches on three of she ships were sliding open and within she saw a pointed shape to something. "What do you—"

Before she'd even finished her question to Fate she had her answer. Using a rocket assist of some kind to get airborne, three lethal looking aircraft launched vertically into the air. Once they leveled out and stabilized, the fighters slipped into formation and sprang toward the two of them. Through her connection to her device Nanoha felt radar seeking her out.

"**Defenser!"**

Fate's shield sprang into being a moment before Nanoha could raise her own. A second later heavy machine gun fire, tracers glaring an angry red, leapt out from the fighters and slammed into the shield where they either shattered or glanced off. And just like that the aircraft shot by them, their first attack run completed. As they passed by Nanoha noted the actual pilots sitting in them. She grimaced in distaste. She hated it when she had no choice but to risk killing her foes. It was a natural part of being a TSAB enforcer mage, but she still didn't like it. Usually she much preferred to capture her targets.

She pointed Raising Heart in the general direction of the fighters. She would give them one last warning. Around her more Axel Shooter projectiles formed. "Shoot!" Again her magic blasted away from her. This time she controlled each of her pink missiles manually and after they blew past the fighters she had them turn in the air and then match trajectories with the three aircraft. She almost wished she could see the faces of the pilots when they looked up in their cockpits and saw her shots flying with them.

"You're showing off Nanoha," Fate smiled.

"Hehe, maybe," Nanoha laughed. "I just don't want to hurt them if I don't have to."

"**Additional incoming aircraft, Master," **Raising Heart announced.

Quickly taking in the information Raising Heart was giving her, Nanoha turned slightly toward the south-west. There, just coming over the horizon were two squadrons of four aircraft. These ones were marked as belonging to the US Navy.

"This isn't good Fate; we must have attracted too much attention when we couldn't raise the barrier."

"Yes," Fate answered quietly, obviously thinking hard. "I can out fly those, but you can only do it for a short time.

"**Incoming fire, multiple missile approaching."**

Nanoha gasped once at that announcement and then again when she saw that the missiles were not heading toward her or Fate. They were heading straight at the three enemy fighters.

"No!"

The denial was useless of course. By the time the words had left her mouth all three enemy craft were trying in vain to lose the American missiles or to shake them off. They didn't succeed. One by one a missile caught up with its prey and consumed it with a powerful, metal shattering blast. When she lowered her hand that she risen in a pleading gesture, she watched as debris fell into the sea.

From behind them, in the direction of the ships, a harsh purple light suddenly bathed everything. Nanoha and Fate both spun in surprise. Beneath them they saw that tremendous-sized magic circles had formed over each of the nine ships.

"Commander Takamachi, Agent Testarossa," Captain Tadeyo's face appeared in a screen next to each of them. "Sorry to bother you, but we're picking up several teleportations activating at the same time near your location."

"Teleportation!" Fate gasped. "With that much mass? They'd have to have something like the power generators of a Bureau ship to make it happen."

"Well it certainly looks like their managing it," Captain Tadeyo said calmly. "We don't read any kind of instability in their magic."

"Then we need to hurry and—"

It was too late. Each of the monstrous cargo ships seemed to turn in some impossible direction and then they vanished. It appeared as if some god had squeezed each one into an impossibly thin version of them and then yanked them away. Then there was a tremendous clap of sound as water slammed in to fill the suddenly vacant volume that hade been filled with thousands of tons of ships a moment before.

Another sudden roaring sound drew Nanoha's attention back to the American fighter aircraft. They were all circling the area where the ships had just vanished.

"Captain, can you trace the teleport?" Nanoha asked hurriedly.

"No commander, this teleport seems to be a unique variant on the spell. From what we can tell it moved the ships into dimensional space, and then used a second jump to bring them back into this space somewhere else. We can only trace the initial jump to dimensional space."

Had she been the type to swear Nanoha would have done it right then. They'd been so close.

"Nanoha, what are we going to do about them?" Fate pointed at the fighters which had re-oriented their circling pattern on them while she'd talked to the captain. She saw one co-pilot trying to gesture at her as his aircraft circled very close to them.

"Raising Heart."

"**Yes, Master."**

"Can you match the radio frequency of that aircraft and match its comm. codes?"

"**Certainly Master, one moment……..done. Radio signal generation enabled."**

Nanoha cleared her throat before speaking, it was one thing to speak to a crowd of trainees and another entirely to introduce herself to someone who might try and shoot missiles at her if she messed up.

"Nanoha, what are you doing?" Fate asked. "You know Bureau policy says that we aren't supposed to interact with non-magical planet populations if we can help it."

"Sorry Fate," Nanoha smiled, "but these people just saw nine ships vanish before their eyes. We can't make them forget about that. And I think they are going to need our help."

Nanoha used her mind to open the newly created radio channel. "Pardon, but can I speak to the individual in charge of the Navy aircraft circling me?"

She heard a surprised exclamation just before a voice answered her. "This is Lieutenant Commander Vincent, United States Navy, am I speaking to one of the individuals flying within our formation?"

"I am Commander Nanoha Takamachi, Time-Space Administration Bureau; I am the one wearing white.

"Nanoha!" Fate hissed worriedly.

"Shush," Nanoha admonished.

"Time what?" was the baffled reply. "Never mind. We will escort you and your partner back to our base. There are those who would like to ask you some questions concerning this and other incidents that are occurring."

"What—?"

"Commander Takamachi!" Captain Tadeyo's voice cut her off. "We have large scale magical detonations occurring all over the planet! There are almost too many to count without computer assistance."

Nanoha felt her breathe catch. She and Fate both shared a worried frown. "Is Uminari City one of them?" she asked.

"No commander, it's still untouched. Several other Japanese cities have taken damage, but not that one."

"Any objections about going with these guys now?" Nanoha asked Fate.

"None," Fate answered with an affirmative nod.

Nanoha reconnected to the pilot. "We agree to go with you. Lead on."

With their escort of Navy fighters, Nanoha and Fate raced back towards land.

***** **

Howard pushed and shoved his way through the hall filled with soldiers. The men milled and ran about like a kicked beehive. It was an old cliché, but Howard thought it fit the image of the base at the moment. Where soldiers weren't running, vehicles were driving. And where vehicles weren't driving, aircraft were landing and taking off.

As he passed a window it looked out into choreographed chaos. Every one of the thousands of soldiers in his view was going about a task that they knew well. Disaster may strike, but they didn't stop, not his men, they would keep going with the true spirit of the corps within them. Even this particular disaster wasn't enough to shake them.

He arrived at the office he needed and pushed through the door. Inside was a confusing mess of shouting men standing around tables and others yelling into radios. It took a moment but he found the man he was looking for.

"General!" He called as she approached the man sitting at his desk. He was glad when he saw the base commander was keeping up his calm outer demeanor. That was important when you commanded thousands of others. You couldn't let them know that you were afraid in a situation like this. You had to provide the strong foundation on which everything else could move.

"Howard?" Tiven said looking up at him. "Good, you're here. I've got some important guests coming in a few minutes and you need to meet them."

"Guests? Now?!" Howard couldn't hide his incredulity. "Sir, there are a lot more important things I need to be doing right now."

"I know that Howard, but this is important too." Tiven let out a long sigh. "In fact it may be directly related to what's happened. Did you hear about all of it?"

"No sir, I just know that something big happened on Okinawa and that all the survivors are coming here for treatment and to regroup."

Tiven pointed at a folding chair of dubious stability sitting next to his desk. "Sit," he commanded. So Howard sat. "Listen. Just under an hour ago there were thousands of coordinated strikes like the one that just hit Okinawa. They happened all over the world against every single nation. Not one was left out. Even Vatican City was hit." Tiven took in a deep calming breathe. "Howard, whoever did this gutted every nation on earth with power like no one has ever seen. Entire governments are now leaderless and off balance. Our own legislature was slaughtered in an instant. The President only survived the attack on Washington because he stopped for an unscheduled bathroom break when his plane landed."

Howard felt absolutely cold inside. He'd heard the attack on Okinawa was bad but he hadn't heard about there being others. This was a disaster of unprecedented scale.

"We weren't the only ones to get hit like that," Tiven went on. "The Pentagon is reporting that almost every single Head of State is now dead. Military bases belonging to everyone were also destroyed. The US, China and Russia are the worst in that regard. Major economic centers were attacked as well. Preliminary satellite images are telling us that almost the entire oil production industry in the Middle East no longer exists along with most major ports and canals."

"They crippled the world," Howard said slowly. "In one day, they've hit everyone where it hurts and left them reeling. How much of the US military is remaining?"

"It's not in good shape Howard, most of our training schools and Academies were hit along with any major concentrations of armor or air power. NORAD was destroyed, even though it's only a back up now. The Navy was the least affected. No deployed fleets were hit at all and every one of our nuclear subs has gone into hiding until the President calls for their use or until the crisis is over. They'll call for air drops of supplies when they need them. The Pentagon reports that China, Russia and all the other nuclear powers are copying that example."

"And since we're just sitting here, I'm guessing we don't know who did this?"

"That's not entirely true," Tiven said gravely. "And that's part of the problem. None of the blast sites show any traces of chemical or nuclear residue. In fact, the one in Okinawa is surprisingly clean for all the damage done. There are…"

Tiven trailed off as he turned around and looked out his office window. Out it, Howard could see a flight of F-18's landing on the runway. He was about to ask what had grabbed the general's attention when he saw them. A figure in white and another in black came flying in to touch down in the grass next to the building. Howard could see every man and woman in view staring at the pair. And he didn't blame them, who would expect people to fly into the base like a superhero?

"Those would be our guests," Tiven chortled. "Since the attack on Okinawa, I'm the highest ranking person in the area, so I've been given the task of greeting these two. .You and I are now going to play at being diplomats."

"Did they just…"

"Fly?" Tiven fished for him. "Yes, and without any visible machinery to do so. That's why we're talking to them"

A few moments later there was a firm knock on the door. When one of the lieutenants in the room answered it the two women they'd seen land walked in with an MP four steps behind. Howard's first opinion of them was that they didn't seem all that impressive. But then he took in the confidant and casual way the women approached toward them. There wasn't any fear or apprehension at being surrounded by dozens of armed soldiers. That wasn't something the average person could do.

They were also fairly young, probably even not out of their twenties yet. The one wearing a white outfit of a coat and skirts carried a long staff in her hands and her partner, wearing a cape over her tight fitting black gear, carried what looked like some kind of battle axe. "Why are they armed?' Howard asked reflexively.

"Because we aren't capable of disarming them," the MP answered sourly. "They stopped us when we tried and we had orders to bring them here anyways."

The woman in white gave him an amused laugh. "Sorry, but I can't let you take my device from me, or Fate's either, but we won't use them to harm you."

Tiven rounded his desk and approached the women. He extended his hand toward the white dressed one. "I'm General Alistair Tiven, commander if this base and the forces now located here. This man," he gestured toward Howard," is now my second in command, Major Howard Rhoads. He has operational control over any military actions from this base"

Howard felt surprise yet again. Apparently he'd been reassigned and partially promoted without noticing it. Instead of worrying about it, he stepped forward and shook both women's hands after his commander was finished.

"I'm Commander Nanoha Takamachi, and this is Enforcer Agent Fate Testarossa. We are from the Time-Space administration Bureau." The woman, Nanoha, smiled amusedly when she finished the introduction and Howard thought she had cause. Every man in the room was now staring at the two as if they were Martians.

"Excuse me, but time what?" Howard asked.

"Time-Space Administration Bureau, it's a governing body that enforces the law on its signatory worlds and in dimensional space in general." The woman answered as if that was the most natural answer in the world. Maybe to her it was? "For your convenience it would be best easiest to say that we provide government and law enforcement on multiple worlds across time-space. Our main duties involve regulating the use of magic."

Howard glanced over to Tiven and saw that his commander seemed to be equally astounded by what the woman had said. If she was speaking the truth then they were speaking to someone from another world.

"Nanoha!" the other woman, Fate, whispered at her partner. "They have no idea what you're talking about. Why are we here?"

"Because they deserve some kind of explanation for what has happened," Nanoha answered her partner. "They are directly involved now." Then she turned back to them. "Normally we aren't supposed to expose ourselves to worlds that don't already know of our existence or don't have active magic users on them, but this incident make that moot. The whole world has seen magic at work."

"So you know what happened?" Howard asked, unable to keep silent. "You're saying that this attack was done with magic?" He heard a number of the other men in the room laugh at his question; they didn't know what had occurred with his daughter so they had no idea of what was possible.

"Yes," Nanoha answered. "Our people have a ship in orbit at the moment and it recorded over 4,000 magical explosions occurring within a span of forty minutes. I suspect the people we were attempting to apprehend when your fighters arrived were directly involved since their escape occurred at the same moment as the attacks."

"I would like to ask you about that." Tiven said deliberately. Howard wondered how the man was ignoring that comment about having a ship in space. "The Navy picked you up on radar and thought you were cruise missiles at first, attacking civilian shipping. Then of course you stopped and hovered over the ships in question. I have satellite video of the two of you firing something at the ships. That's what caused two flights of Hornets to divert to your location on my orders when they were originally on the way here. Why did you attack those ships?"

"The occupants of those ships used extremely dangerous and possibly lethal magic on a non-magical world. That is a serious violation of Bureau laws," Nanoha answered promptly. "The same ship of ours that I mentioned before picked up what appeared to be multiple teleportations occurring across the world. Residents of Earth were abducted by those means. Also on this very island a battle using magic occurred. Those involved were teleported to the ships we were attempting to stop as well."

"You're saying that my daughter was on board one of those ships?!" Howard gasped

"Your daughter?" Fate asked, speaking to them for the first time.

"Yes," Howard answered. "My daughter was the one taken. Are you saying that she was there?"

The two women exchanged a concerned look. "If she was the one taken, then yes, the teleport took her to one of the vessels in that group," Nanoha answered. "They escaped before we could apprehend them and rescue the prisoners. Was your daughter the other magic user we detected?"

"Yes, or, at least I think so," Howard answered, feeling slightly defeated at hearing about his daughter's failed rescue. "I didn't know anything until this happened."

"Then I'm sorry we couldn't get to her in time," Nanoha answered sadly. "We will do everything we can to stop these people and rescue her. Our ship is searching as we speak for any traces of them."

A soft, clear chime suddenly echoed through the air and everyone looked around in confusion, trying to find the source. Commander Takamachi just smiled and gave a wave of her hand. Howard and everyone else in the room blinked almost as one as a floating image of an older man wearing a uniform appeared in window floating in midair.

"Commander Takamachi," the man said addressing the woman. Howard noted the sound of respect in the man's voice. "I've contacted HQ and they've already dispatched assistance. Three cruisers and one transport are on their way to this planet. Also, Admiral Harlaown will be coming as the TSAB representative to the Earth governments."

"Thanks Captain," Nanoha replied cheerily. "Can you tell me when they will arrive?"

"Certainly, ETA is about 16 hours for the transport and 20 for the cruisers." The man gave a respectful nod and then the screen simply vanished.

"Was that," Tiven pointed at the air, "the captain of the orbiting ship you mentioned?"

"Yes, he's the captain of the _Heibao. _It's a survey vessel." Nanoha smiled and made another gesture. Again a screen appeared, except in this one the image of a spaceship appeared. It was long, flat, roughly triangular, and there were two booms sticking out from what Howard assumed was the front. It definitely looked like something that moved around in space.

"You called for help?" Howard asked.

"Yes, Fate and I aren't enough for something of this magnitude," Nanoha answered, dropping back into a serious tone. "The Bureau enforcers that are coming will assist in stopping whoever did this."

"What about you two?"

The two women shared a look again, this time with a smile. "We will participate as well. We have quite a bit of experience at finding dangerous things and people," Nanoha said with confidence. "We will find those ships and with them we will find your daughter."

"Why are you so certain that you'll succeed?" Tiven asked curiously.

"Because I'm a parent myself," Nanoha replied instantly. "And also because it's my job to do so."

In that moment Howard looked into Commander Takamachi's eyes and felt heat flash through him. Within those eyes burned the same emotions he felt about his missing daughter. This was someone who had experienced the same thing he was now and someone who would do everything in her power to get Alice back to him. Somehow it released a great deal of the worry that had been weighing him down since his daughter's abduction. Then the moment was over and Nanoha looked at Tiven.

"General," she began. "This incident will likely change the earth irrevocably. Our people would like to help as much as we can but there will still be a limit to our manpower in the short term."

"That's understandable, this isn't your world," Tiven replied as if he'd dealt with people from other worlds every day. "But I think my superiors will likely approve of me supporting you and yours when needed. The United States and likely many other nations would probably be more than willing assist in stopping these people."

"Then we'll take our leave," Commander Takamachi smiled. "We'll get in touch with you when we have something. Our Admiral Harlaown as you heard will arrive within a day to act as the emissary from the Bureau."

"Is there a way for us to contact _you_?" Tiven asked as Nanoha and her partner both turned toward the door, stopping them.

Commander Takamachi seemed to think about that for a second, and then she pointed her staff toward the wall to the left of Tiven's desk. "Raising Heart," she said quietly.

"**Yes Master." **

Howard twitched as the feminine sounding voice came out of woman's staff while it gave a soft, pink flash. Then, before all their eyes, a circle with symbols much like the one his daughter had made up appeared in the air. A window/screen like the one the ship captain had spoken from appeared there. Instead of an image it contained a small black circle with the word 'call' inside it.

"If you really need to call me press on that circle," Nanoha informed them. "It will call up to the ship in orbit and from there they can route it to me or anyone else."

Without any further conversation, the two women walked out of the office. Howard went to the window and with Tiven he watched as the two walked out into the grass and then rocketed back into the sky, each surrounded by a halo of colored light.

"So what do you think?" Tiven asked quietly.

"Assuming what we saw wasn't a hallucination or a trick; I'd say we'd be stupid not to accept their help." Howard answered. "Just purely for personal reasons I'd want to have their help. Those women are the only chance I have to find Alice, I don't care if they are from another world."

"You don't think she was a nut? Talking about time-space and all that?" Tiven laughed.

Howard pointed at the button-thing the woman had made. "That and the other things she did were pretty convincing; that and the fact that the two of them flew here under their own power. And you saw what she did with that staff. That circle was incredibly close to what Alice drew in her notebook. I wouldn't mind having flying troops like them."

"Well, if you're happy with them too then I'll send the recording of this conversation we had with them to the Pentagon," Tiven said. "Since I'm the man on the ground they're waiting for my report and opinions. I'm going to recommend to that we cooperate with these folks. I think they'll accept because like you said a moment ago, only an idiot wouldn't be wondering about when the strike is going to be and how hard it will be. Having more allies in this kind of thing is always good."

"Then I'll get back to getting this base into shape," Howard replied. "If we're going to be fighting a war we need to be ready."

"Sounds good Howard, by tomorrow evening I'll have permission to mobilize if we need to. If you can get the men ready by then, we'll be set for any action we need to face. You're dismissed."

******* **

When Alice woke again she was extremely confused. This was because of a number of reasons. First, and most important, she was in motion. Not under her own power of course, but she was being dragged along on a stretcher and none too smoothly. The bumpy and uneven jolts were what had awoken her to begin with; it felt as if she was being dragged down a dirt road. The second thing was that the time was wrong. When she opened her eyes the first thing that had entered her vision was the sun setting over a small mountain. It was always disorienting to wake up when it's already evening. And that mountain was part of the third reason she was confused.

The last she knew she had been on a ship, and now she clearly was not; and nowhere near the sea as well. Her body was practically screaming that her surroundings were wrong. The air smelled of pine instead of sea salt, the temperature was on the cool side, and the sky was too small. Groaning from stiffness, she turned her head first to the left. She'd heard what sounded like water in that direction.

What she did see made her gasp aloud. She didn't notice that her stretcher had stopped moving because the sight she was seeing was just too weird. Nine enormous cargo ships were crammed cheek to jowl inside a small mountain lake that lay parallel to the road she was being dragged down. Such ships could _not_ be in a place like this. How had they gotten here? The lake didn't have an outlet in sight but even if it had one Alice doubted that ships of this size could navigate it. And now that she looked closer at least three of the ships were tilting as if they were already resting on the lake's bottom.

"Alice?"

Alice craned her neck upwards and looked into Azusa's face again. Unlike last time though there was a bit more of distance between them. Azusa was the one pulling on her stretcher and she was looking over her shoulder at Alice. "Hey Azusa," Alice said by way of a greeting. "Where are we?"

:"I'm not really sure," Azusa frowned. "While you were asleep they took us somewhere with a flash of light. I think we might be in Russia somewhere though, because a couple of people we've walked by have been speaking that language."

"Russia?" Alice said in confusion. "Why Russia?"

"I don't really know," Azusa said shrugging. "But from the ship this place looks like and old, abandoned mining town of some kind. Before they made me carry you down I saw the lift towers for the shafts. It's pretty small and dirty looking too."

Alice looked at her surroundings and frowned. They were indeed in a rundown looking area of buildings. They were traveling down a heavily broken road that ran along the grungy waterfront. Everything in sight looked dirty, broken, or both. The buildings and rusting cars all looked to be of old Soviet-era construction. She would have got a better look but all she could move was her head, the rest of her body was wrapped to the stretcher with a bed sheet.

"Move it you two!"

Alice couldn't see the speaker because he was behind her in the direction Azusa was facing. Alice snorted. "I take it we weren't let go?"

"Unfortunately not," Azusa said, turning her face back forwards as she resumed walking. "They made me wrap you to this stretcher and then bring you down from the ship. That guy you heard is one of our guards. He's probably angry because the two of us are some the last ones to get off the ships and we're holding him up."

"Why were we so late?" Alice asked.

At first Azusa didn't answer, but when she did it was in a dead whisper. "Alice, they…they took off your right arm. That's why we were so late. They thought it was too infected so they removed it at the elbow. It's just…gone."

Sometimes the brain does funny things when you're in complete shock over something. Occasionally it goes in directions it normally wouldn't in order to avoid pain. The first thing Alice said at the news that she no longer had a whole right arm was to say, "Sensei is going to be so pissed."

"What?!" Azusa asked at her seemingly random comment.

"Sensei, my martial arts instructor, he's going be pissed. He'll think…that I lost my arm on…purpose to get out of practicing." Alice had a hard time speaking. For some reason her throat felt tight and her eyes burned.

"What are you crying for?"

Alice glared up at the soldier that had dropped back to walk next to them.

"Hehe, what are you going do girl, glare me to death?" Alice wanted to slug him for the terrible attempt at a joke. Why were soldiers so unimaginative? "Well, it doesn't matter really," the man continued. "We're here. This is your new, wonderful home."

Alice tried to get a look, but she still couldn't turn enough to look in front of them, Azusa blocked her whole view. She heard the click of a door opening and then Azusa carried her over the threshold of a doorway that caused a huge jolt to her stretcher. Azusa paused as the soldier closed the heavy looking metal door behind them. When they continued down a hall, one with very a bland, yellow color scheme on its walls, she saw that the building looked fairly modern on the inside. Other than the bad choice in paint it seemed to be clean and well kept. That was much different compared the other buildings she'd seen.

"In there," she heard the man direct. They entered an office of some kind. "Get your friend off that stretcher, the director will be coming soon to speak with you both."

Alice felt Azusa prop the stretcher up against something as the soldier locked them inside. A second later she felt the blanket holding her body still loosen and then fall away.

"Can you stand up?" Azusa asked in concern as she walked into Alice's field of vision. She stopped right in front of her and clenched her hands worriedly.

"Dunno," Alice answered. "Let me try." She looked down and for the first time she saw the stump of her right arm. It ended in an ugly, wrinkled bit of folded over skin with stitches in it. Shuddering, Alice gripped the stretcher with her remaining hand and slid her legs over either side. Very slowly, ignoring her body's aches, she leaned forward and put her weight on her legs. They didn't feel weak so she continued until she was standing in front of Azusa.

"Looks like standing works fine," Alice said, smiling slightly. "Thanks for helping me so far Azusa."

Azusa's hair swayed as she shook her head. "All I did was carry you like they ordered me too."

"Does that mean you wouldn't have if no one had made you?" Alice asked.

"Well no, I still would have done it," Azusa admitted. "But you shouldn't try to give me so much credit."

"I'll stop thanking you when you stop helping me," Alice smirked. She looked around the room they were in. It looked like almost any office. It had a big wooden desk with a computer monitor on it, bookshelves against one wall and four chairs arrayed in a semi-circle in front of the desk. Her stretcher lay against one of them. "I guess we get to find out how much fun these experiments of theirs are going to be now."

"I'd rather not find out," Azusa said. "They didn't seem to care very much when they cut your arm off. They even tried to make me watch as they did it. Some old guy said it would teach me to behave myself if I knew what the consequences were."

Alice touched her remaining hand to her stump. It felt really disturbing. She moved the stretcher out way and Azusa helped her prop it against a wall, then they both sat in the seats in front of the desk. They'd only waited a few minutes when the door opened again to admit a young looking man with a premature bald spot and a doctor's coat. Alice disliked him immediately and Azusa looked like she agreed. The guy had one of those odd smiles that could hide anything from a glowing philanthropist to a raging psychopath behind it. Alice was inclined to believe it was the latter.

"So, you two are my newest subjects." He stated as he stood a foot inside the door. "A bit older than the others it seems, but I've heard good things about you both."

"What do you need us for?" Azusa demanded. "Why'd you kidnap us?"

"Because of your magic of course!" The man crowed. "You see, where we come from, magic is strictly controlled by an organization other than that controlled by our Emperor. The Emperor, smart fellow that he is, decided to rectify the situation. And that's where you two and your fellows down the hall from here come in. I'm going to figure out what makes your magic works, and then apply it to our people. It's as simple as that."

The man grinned as of he'd just spoken the greatest plan of all time. "And how are you going to do that?" Alice asked. She didn't like the sound of what the man said. It meant they were in the middle of someone else's political mess. She actually wanted to scream 'what empire?!' at him, but she wasn't sure she really wanted to know

"Through rigorous experimentation!" the doctor answered. "Dissection already proved to be unrewarding, so we've shifted to the next idea."

Dissection?! Alice felt her stomach tighten. She had known it couldn't be good, but his guy was a wacko. "So who are you then?" Alice asked, trying to get as much information as she could out of the guy before they were dragged off.

"I'm Director Juden, I run this entire compound," he gave them a wide, proud grin. "Most of this town is used for housing or running my experiments. You two are going to be part of my personal projects from now on."

"So what happens now?" Azusa asked. Alice thought she sounded disturbed too.

"Ah, yes, sorry, it's been a busy two days with so many new arrivals," Juden apologized. "I'll bring you to your quarters. It's already late and Lights Out is in 30 minutes. That means you should eat the meal that's already waiting for you in your room and go right to bed. You'll be put into one of my experiment groups in the morning so you'll need your energy."

"Sleep? But I just woke up." Alice complained reflexively. She almost swore once her brain caught up with her mouth. She'd replied just as she would have if dad had tried to send to bed too early.

"I heard about that," Juden nodded. "They said you made trouble for the capture team and got yourself injured."

"Injured myself?!" Alice squawked in outrage. "They blasted me into a car!"

"Yes, but if you hadn't fought back you'd be in one piece like Ms. Higa here. Just don't bother to try anything like that here. This building is sealed both physically and magically and this whole town is occupied by our soldiers. Escaping would be a very unlikely endeavor."

Alice tried hard not to clench her teeth at the insultingly condescending tone. "Ok, fine, whatever. Let's get this over with."

Juden led them through a number of labyrinthine hallways until they came to a section that clearly looked like a residence area. There were other people walking around with guards as escorts and they all eyed Alice and Azusa curiously. Alice saw all of the people dressed in prisoner garb were really young girls, children really. None could have been above the age of ten.

"Does your experiment not include boys?" Alice asked, curious despite her situation.

"The boys are housed elsewhere," Juden said knowingly. "We didn't want any of the projects ruined by indiscretions between subjects. Ah! Here's your room. Make sure to remember the room number because you are responsible for keeping it clean at all times. Violations will result in punishments, such as Ms. Rhoads restriction plate "

The room they were forcefully ushered into was blankly utilitarian. It was almost as bad as the cabin had been aboard the ship. There were two beds, a storage locker and one barred window that was made with frosted glass so that she couldn't actually see outside. On each bed were bed clothes and a paper plate consisting of a sandwich and a bag of potatoe chips. Next to that lay a bottle of water. On one wall was a tiny bathroom that had had its door removed. It looked like it had once been a dorm in its past life, but not a particularly nice one.

"Goodnight girls," Jaden said with a cheery wave. "I'll see you two in the morning." With that he shut the door and Alice heard the dull thunk of a heavy bolt being thrown.

Alice, feeling incredibly hungry after sleeping all day, went of to one of the beds and glared at a sandwich. It looked to be turkey. You think these are safe?" She asked aloud.

"Probably," Azusa said, crossing over to her and looking at the plate as well. "They wouldn't poison us would they?"

"Maybe not poison per se, but what about drugs in general?"

"I didn't think of that," Azusa frowned. "But we can't starve ourselves, right?"

"True," Alice picked up the sandwich. "I guess there's only one way to know for sure." She took a tentative bite from its side. "Bleh!"

"What? What is it?" Azusa asked worriedly. "Is it really drugged?"

"No idea," Alice answered, reaching for the water. She took a cleansing sip. "The bread is so stale that it could hide anything!"

Azusa giggled. "Did you expect them to give prisoners quality food?"

"No, but it should at least be edible," Alice complained. Azusa crossed over to get the other plate for herself and then they both sat on one of the beds and forced themselves to eat the sandwiches. Thankfully the chips were the greasy junk food kind, so they tasted fine even when they were a little out of date.

As they ate, Alice finally got a chance to get a good look at her cellmate. Azusa was dressed as she was in the oh-so stylish orange pants and shirt of their prisoner garb. The girl was also shorter than Alice had initially thought, coming in almost half a head shorter than Alice herself. Azusa was also thinly built. Alice also noticed signs of the moneyed status Azusa had hinted at before. The girl's hair had been styled at one point not too long ago and her skin and nails looked carefully maintained.

"What?" Azusa asked, noticing her staring.

"Nothing really," Alice shrugged. "I didn't really get a chance to look at you before so I was just curious now."

Azusa snorted a laugh and smiled. "Alice, that just sounds weird."

"Really?"

"Yeah," Azusa giggled to herself for a little bit after that. Alice didn't get what was so funny, but she was glad at least one of them was cheerful.

By the time they finished eating the room was already incredibly dark; the only light coming in faintly through the glass from outside lights. Evenings came early when you were in the shadow of mountains apparently. After they set their plates aside, they unfolded their sheets and blankets to make their beds.

"Alice," Azusa said faintly as she held onto an ugly grey blanket.

"Hmm?" Alice asked as she used her chin to hold her sheet open for a moment.

"W-would it be alright if we slept in the same bed? After being next to you on the ship I feel safer that way for some reason and I don't want to lay over here by myself."

"I don't mind," Alice shrugged. "It'll be warmer with both of us since we can double up the blankets and we can roll a sheet up to use as a pillow.

"Thanks," Azusa said, sounding relieved. Alice wondered if the girl had had problems even before being kidnapped.

It took a bit of fidgeting and shifting about to get comfortable with both of them occupying a single bed, but eventually they got situated to where they both felt fine. For a while they just laid there, not saying anything. Then Alice felt a light touch on the stump of her right arm.

"Aren't you bothered by this?" Azusa asked quietly.

"Sure I am," Alice said, in the same tone. "There's just nothing I can do about it. It's not like I can demand that they put it back on. And it's my fault it's gone. I did something stupid and this is my punishment. At least I didn't have to see it when it was freaking you out."

"Be very glad you didn't," Azusa said emphatically. "It was really infected and gross looking. I think your bone got pulverized too."

"Ok, yeah, I guess I am glad you didn't let me see it," Alice laughed lightly. "That probably would have made me barf."

"At least now you can go for the pirate look," Azusa joked.

"You think I'd look good with a hook and a parrot?"

"Add a brace of pistols and you'd be perfect," Azusa giggled.

"How does a one handed pirate shoot a brace of pistols?" Alice asked.

"Dunno," Alice felt her shrug. "Maybe they make ones that fit on a hook."

Alice smiled into the dark. She was incredibly thankful she'd ended up Azusa as her cellmate. The girl had a gift for making Alice feel at ease.

"Do you have any younger sisters?" Alice asked.

"Yeah, I have four of them." Azusa answered confusedly. "Why?"

"No reason really, I just thought you were good a cheering me up and I wondered if you had prior experience."

Azusa made a soft sound of amusement. "I have lots of experience with nights like this; I haven't spent more than three nights in a row with my bed to myself for the last year or so. Usually one of the little ones crawls in next to me." So _that's_ why she wanted to share a bed, Alice thought, Azusa was used to doing the same with her siblings.

"The little ones? How old are they?"

Azusa yawned. "The twins are two and another one is four. The next oldest is fourteen. The three younger ones are from when my dad remarried." She yawned again

They talked for a while longer about even more inane stuff and after a little bit Alice heard Azusa slip into the even breathing of sleep. Despite sleeping so much earlier Alice followed soon after.

**

The morning wake up call came to them as a portly guard slamming their door open.

"Out of bed! The doctors are waiting!" Then he moved on to yell at the next room.

Alice was so jolted by the screaming that she fell right out of the bed and only saved herself from a face plant by a last second save with her arm. Azusa, also startled, jolted straight up. "Alice?!" she a called, panicking.

"Right here," Alice answered, getting off the floor. "I'm right here."

"Morning you two!" They both cringed and looked at the door where Juden was standing with his hands in his pockets. "Time for the testing to begin! Come along now; don't make me use your plate to motivate you, Alice."

Again Alice wanted to hit the man. No one should be that cheerful in the morning, especially when they were experimenting on people, but she saw no point in resisting the man just yet and she told Azusa to just go along for now. If they didn't follow directions Juden would probably decide to go back to the dissection method.

This time she and Azusa were led past other escorted groups again until they arrived at a room that looked like a hospital examining room. She saw heart monitors and several other machines she recognized from watching medical shows on TV.

A woman waiting in that room ran them both through the usual battery of height, weight, and other info gathering measurements. Then came a blood draw, a saliva swab and other things to be lab tested. She would have thought it was just an unusually thorough medical check-up except for at the end where she and Azusa had to stand in a glass box for half an hour. From the few comments that she had understood they were doing some kind of test to see if they were giving off any kind of magic. Azusa got the most attention during that one.

After consuming a stale bagel and a cup of juice that was shoved into their hands, they were dragged to another room. This time there was a whole gaggle of men in coats fiddling with wall mounted parabolic dishes pointed toward the center of an otherwise empty room with beige floor tiles.

"Alice, go stand over there in the middle of the room if you would," Juden directed. Alice did so and frowned at the dishes. She wanted to know what they did. "Now I heard that you can actually control your magic to a small degree. Is this true?"

"It is," Alice nodded. "Why?"

"Because I want you to do something benign with it."

Alice touched her hand to the plate stuck to her chest. "What about this thing? Won't it try to stop me?"

"Nope, it won't bother you right now." Alice shelved that info for later in her mind. She wanted figure out how to get the plate off herself so that she could escape with Azusa and as many of the others as she could.

Since it would make them happy for now she held out her palm and formed her light ball spell above it. She smiled at the small surprised gasp from Azusa. "Like this?" she asked.

"Perfect!" Juden answered.

They made her hold the spell like that for an hour. Then they had her switch places with Azusa. They asked her a bunch of questions while she stood in the middle of the room like, "how many people are there in this building?" and "what is the average temperature of the room three doors down from here?" Oddly enough though, Azusa answered them all with very precise numbers after just a moment's concentration.

After that they spent the whole afternoon and evening doing those same repetitious tasks over and over again. Alice would have thought it was all pointless except that Juden spent the whole time looking absurdly pleased. Alice figured that most of the other kids that had been kidnapped weren't able to use magic as much as she and Azusa apparently could; Juden had mentioned that she an Azusa were a lot older than the others too. That meant they were probably going to get an unfortunate amount attention. But she wasn't entirely sure about that though, she and Azusa had been kept away from any of the others at all times except when changing rooms.

When they were again returned to their cell in the late evening Alice was completely exhausted. Many hours straight of using magic, even as simple as her light ball was, made her feel strung out. Waiting for them like the night before, was dinner. This time it was a paper bowl of tomato soup. She and Azusa both wolfed it down even though it was cold and gross.

"Are you alright?" Azusa asked when they were just sitting back and resting on a bed they'd pushed against a wall and sipping on their water.

"I'm fine," Alice assured her, smiling at the girl's concern for her well being. "Using magic is just like any other work, it's tiring."

"Can you do anything else other than that light ball?"

"Yeah," Alice gave a small chuckle. "The only other spells these people know I can do are dangerous though, so they didn't ask me to do them. But I've made a total of six spells if I include the light ball that I can do pretty much at will now after using it all day for hours on end."

"Did you use your magic when they took you?"

"Uh-huh, that's why they stuck this plate on me. I have a spell that I made for self-defense and it took a guy out. Turns out I was just lucky because the soldier didn't have his armor turned on. After that the leader guy just swatted it aside with ease. It was really stupid of me. I got tossed around like a doll."

"Armor?"

"They have some kind of shield thing that protects them. The guy I hit with my spell didn't have his up so the spell hit him full force. After that I didn't stand a chance."

Thinking of her restrictor plate and what the doctor had said about it, Alice unbuttoned the top two buttons on her shirt so that she could look at the thing. It looked like an unremarkable piece of steel sitting on her skin. It had a slightly beveled edge, but there wasn't anything that she could see that could be manipulated. Alice flinched for a second when Azusa reached over and touched the plate.

"Does that hurt you?" she asked.

"No, I can't even feel it sitting there."

Insanely curious as to how the thing worked, Alice brought a tiny amount of magic up without trying to use it for anything. She felt the sharp jolt from the plate, but she grimaced and continued to try and manipulate her magic.

"Alice?" Azusa asked, seeing her pained expression.

Alice grinned at her as she let her magic slip back. "They lied to us Azusa!" she laughed. "The plate doesn't actually stop my magic at all. It just hurts so much that it makes it insanely hard to control magic enough to make it do anything."

"Doesn't that just equal the same thing?"

"Uh-uh, nope."

Alice picked up her discarded soup bowl and set it on the metal locker. "Azusa, can you do something for me to help? I need you do something that will let my mind concentrate on something else instead of the pain. A distraction."

"Like what?"

"Uhmm," Alice thought it over. "How about just rubbing up and down on my back?"

"I guess I can do that," Azusa answered, sounding confused. "What are you going to do?"

"Just watch," Alice smiled.

As Azusa rubbed on her back as instructed, Alice again brought up her magic. This time she let her mind focus as much as possible on the rhythm of Azusa's hands instead of the pain coming from her chest. It was still excruciating of course, but she slowly managed it after a few fumbled attempts. Once she was sure she had control, she began to forge her magic into the third spell she had created.

She had made this one for entirely selfish reasons. What it did was it formed two circles, one over the other. Within the small gap of those circles the spell generated heat. Alice had made it as a convenient way to cook instant noodles when she was on the roof of her apartment. Now though she formed it with tedious slowness on her bowl. Then she added the second feature she'd included in the spell, the all important timer.

She wasn't sure exactly how it worked entirely because she had created parts of it by error and accident, but the heating spell somehow gathered magic in small amounts from the surrounding area as well as her own supply. When the timer ran out, the spell cut off and her noodles would be done. Now she changed one variable so that instead of counting down, the spell counted up. It would continue to gather magic to itself until the time reached a certain point, and then it would release all the magic it had gathered as heat in one instant. At least she hoped it would, she'd never adjusted the variables of a spell like this.

"There!" she said when she was done. She rubbed vigorously at her chest. Even when she stopped she could feel the echo of the pain. "Thanks Azusa, I don't think I could have done it without something to distract me; that was a bit hard to do."

"No problem, but what is that?" Azusa asked, pointing at the two circles that bracketed her soup bowl. Both circles rotated slowly in opposite directions of each other.

"It's my noodle cooking spell!" Alice laughed.

"So why is your noodle cooking spell on your empty soup bowl?" Azusa asked, clearly baffled.

"Just watch," Alice said for the second time.

For about fifteen minutes they watched the spell. Then the dark blue circles suddenly flashed and gave out a sharp hiss. Within the vanishing circles the paper bowl burst into flames.

"Okay, so you're a pyromaniac now," Azusa laughed as she dumped water onto the bowl to put it out. "What are you going to do with it? Wouldn't it be better to use your attack spell if you can still use magic?"

"No way!" Alice said waving her remaining hand in denial. "I already got shot into a car once. I don't want to do that ever again, it hurts and I've only got one hand left. I can't fight back yet, but I want to annoy them a little. It'll make me feel better. And even If I wanted to attack them I would still need you to distract me like you did just now and that wouldn't really be practical against a whole bunch of trained soldiers."

"Well, annoy them tomorrow!" Azusa said in a chastising tone. "I'm tired from today too and I want to sleep."

"Alright, alright," Alice agreed. "Same bed again?"

"If you don't mind," Azusa affirmed with a small nod.

Once they were set again, they both drifted off into contented sleep.

****

Zander wandered through the halls of the research building with a glowing sense of relief. It was three days after he had given the initial strike order and in a few short hours the first squads of the Imperial Forces would be coming through the dimensional gates and his job would largely be over. Well, technically his job was already done. He was supposed to be the forerunner to the invasion and the support for the research division and both of those tasks were on their way to completion

He had done his job, gathering the research subjects and then kicking out the support structure that the earth governments relied upon. Now the assault units were supposed to be crossing through the gate to take advantage of the chaos he had sown. There were more ships in orbit now from that Time-Space whatever, but they shouldn't be a problem, there was no way they were large enough to bring enough troops to oppose the Empire once they were here in force. If everything went well from now on, then the Emperor would finally free them from the grip of the Faithful.

Breathing deeply to calm his busy mind, he let it all out in a long sign. Then he took a long sip from his cup. Coffee was a plant that regrettably didn't exist on the home world. Its taste and stimulant always made him feel better. After coming here he would miss the beverage if he was ever forced to leave. He wondered idly if he would be permitted to retire here after the Earth was under Imperial Control. He wasn't even technically even an Admiral now since his 'fleet' was stranded in a lake.

As he rounded a corner he frowned as she saw Director Juden kneeling down, glaring at a wooden chair that sat in the hall.

"What in the Eight Heaven's are you doing Juden?!" He asked when he got closer.

Juden pointed at the chair, Zander saw that there were two, dark blue spell circles bracketing a leg. "I'm watching this."

"Did you make that? Did you actually manage to create a spell?!"

"No no," Juden said absently. "Alice and her friend made it."

"Alice?" Zander asked in confusion.

"One of the test subjects, she was in the last group you grabbed. She figured out the trick to the pain plate already. I knew she would eventually; she's too old and thinks too logically not to do so. Now she leaves these with the help of her cellmate Azusa whenever we don't pay attention to her. It's quite vexing sometimes."

"What does it do?"

"Lights things on fire," Juden answered, sounding unconcerned. "We've had to start keeping her away from delicate equipment because she somehow slips these onto the stuff. "

"Why don't you just turn up the setting on the plate then?"

"Because, annoying as this is, it's also helping us," Juden said. "Every time she or the other girl uses her magic, we learn a little bit more. I'm content to let her play her game for now. She doesn't know that the plate is also a recoding device so if I leave her alone she'll just go on thinking she's being rebellious and independent while I gather more and more data from her. Oh! There it goes."

Zander watched with interest as the spell flashed and smoke arose from the wood. Then flames began to grow. Just as he was about to suggest putting the chair outside, Juden pulled a small, single-use extinguisher from his belt and dosed the chair.

"Well, I'm done here," Juden sighed. "Now to get back to my office and check on tomorrow's schedule. This Alice and her friend are absolutely amazing, they are much better than the original plan."

"Oh?"

"Yes, as you know I originally wanted children because I thought studying a developing magical core would be the key to figuring out how to create our own mages. But I was wrong! It is helpful to look at the children, but these two are so much better. Their cores are already active and growing and they've given be scads of data. I only asked for their capture out of curiosity, but that decision has turned into such a blessing."

"Well, as long as you figure things out I don't really care how you do it," Zander told him. "There's no point to all of this if we can't break the hold the Vicars have over magic."

That made the researcher take notice. "Have they found us already?"

"Possibly," Zander responded. "But there's no point worrying about it. If it happens it happens and we will face our deaths with dignity.

"That would be an unpleasant development," Juden replied. "I'm the one currently committing heresy, my death would be much worse than yours."

"If you succeed then there's no problem."

"True, and on that note I need to get back to work."

"Right."

****

**Same time**

**Hirtolia, Home of the Imperial Seat**

**Grand Temple of the Eight God-Kings**

"You've found them my son?"

"Yes your Holiness."

High Vicar Stonetree, current head of the Ruling Council of Eight, grinned at the kneeling green armored Inquisitor. His own red, silken robes made a soft hiss as he raised a thoughtful hand to his short, white bearded chin. "Then tell me, what you have found."

"At once Holiness. I followed the lead the Council gave me. The stolen Käfig Soldaten were indeed taken by the forces under the Emperor's command. I found them with tens of thousands of soldiers in a hidden staging area located on a small island; an island of the Imperial Estate. I also found that they had stolen something else."

"Oh? And what is it?"

"They have taken four Holy Relics of the God-Kings your Holiness; all of them irreplaceable Dimensional Doors."

"Did they now? Hmmm. And did you find out where they plan to go?"

"Yes, I found out that they've already sent the missing Admiral Zander Ravant and his men through along with a few, questionable others. According to the notes that I've recovered, they have finally found the world of the Apostate."

"Hmm, it seems the Emperor has been naughty, hiding such information from the Faithful," Stonetree said with thoughtful smile. "This is exactly what we needed."

"Your Holiness?"

"Inquisitor, prepare the Temple Swords, it seems the long awaited Cleansing is near at hand. And we may get a chance at the Apostate as well."

"At once your Holiness, the Swords will not fail you."

The lean, wiry man stood, bowed with two fingers to his forehead, and then strode from the white, marble walled chamber.

* * *

Author's note- Käfig Soldaten = Cage soldiers, I apologize if this is bad German.

Review response:

AluciusDawn- Thanks for the review. I do know what a Mary Sue is and I apologize for the tease with Alice. I wanted her to be a little overly confidant in herself due to her lack of social interaction and her luck with the guy that tried to grab her. Smart but naïve was kind of what I originally intended. I hope you continue to enjoy the story as I work on it.

Tombadgerlock-Thanks as well, and sorry about the typos, I thought I'd caught most of them.


	3. Plans

When Admiral Chrono Harlaown stepped into the darkly lit meeting room aboard the TSAB cruiser _Teifeng_ Nanoha couldn't help smirking at him. Next to her, Fate wasn't hiding her amusement at all and grinned openly. When he stepped in far enough for the hatch to close, he stopped and frowned disapprovingly at them both.

"I don't really see what you two are so amused by." He said grumpily.

That statement alone was almost enough to send Nanoha into a paroxysm of laughter. Combined with his angry, frustrated face and his annoyed stance, it was clear to both her and Fate that things had not gone as well as Chrono had boasted before he went down to meet with the newly and hastily reformed UN council.

"You didn't enjoy being the diplomat to Earth Chrono?" She teased.

"It's quite obvious that I didn't," he countered as he walked over and sat at the table with them. That stern yet ambiguous answer made Nanoha laugh again. Chrono was still just as stiff as ever. The only time he ever let go was around his kids and Amy and sometimes Fate when she caught him off guard. "They should have made you do it Nanoha, you were born here."

"Yes, but I'm not an admiral. I turned all those promotions down, remember?"

"Well, the next time the TSAB has to deal with the absolutely chaotic mess of dealing with a multi-government world, I'm still recommending you for the job."

"That's not very nice of you," Fate said, smiling at her brother. "You did volunteer for this."

"I know, and I regret it."

"Why was it so bad?" Nanoha asked.

"It was bad because all the other diplomats wanted to do was squabble with each other while only occasionally talking to me. The comments some of them made were filled with barbs meant for one of the other nations. It was covered over with flowery talk of course, but the stingers were there. They all want to save the earth while somehow coming out ahead of the others. It was disgusting. They should all have been more concerned about the fact that their countries have been thrown into political and economic chaos."

"Well, how many other government representatives have you known that weren't full of self serving intentions?" Nanoha pointed out. "Earth is just bad because there are so many of them. A lot of countries here have bad blood with the others."

"I noticed," Chrono said dryly. "I had the representative from Iran try and bribe me to ignore the country of Israel when we save everyone else. What would I do with money from earth? And then there were a whole crowd of them whining about equality while spouting a bunch of nonsense about the East and the West that I could care less about."

"So how did you get them to listen to you?"

"I told them that if they if they didn't settle down and be quiet I'd pick one country and force everyone else to work through that intermediary to talk to me and the TSAB. I also threatened to make citizens of that one country the only ones who could be representatives to the TSAB if Earth ever became a signatory world."

"Which country did you pick?"

"Japan," Chrono shrugged. "I like Japan, my mother lives there and she hasn't complained about it very much. And Amy hasn't said too many bad things about living there either. Their diplomat was also one of the calmest in the room and he complained the least."

"Did they settle down after that?"

"For the most part, though they did grumble a lot for a while. After that I was finally able get some work done."

"And?" Fate prompted

"They eventually agreed to the proposal we drew up. They will allow TSA enforcers to operate across all countries if any more incidents occur. They have also agreed to let us set up basic shielding on their primary government buildings. And lastly, they agreed after much argument, to tell the general population the truth about what is happening and about us. A few countries with a lot of religious citizens weren't too happy about that."

"Well a lot of the religions on Earth list magic as an evil," Nanoha pointed out.

"Yes, I know that," Chrono said, "I just don't like the difficulties it causes in a situation like this. We still don't know who the attacking group is and what they intend. The analysts back home have too many possible motives for us to pin anything down."

Nanoha looked at him in concerned surprise. "Nothing? Nothing at all has been discovered?"

"Not enough to be useful," Chrono sighed. "We've gone over all the available data we have and nothing has come of it. There are similarities in the abduction cases, but that doesn't tell us who they are."

"What similarities?" Fate asked out of curiosity.

"Well, after talking to and examining all of the families who've had children taken we discovered that every single one of them was in the upper or upper-middle class. Most of the families were also older ones that have always married carefully throughout their histories. Also, all the family members tested highly for strong linker cores."

"So?" Nanoha asked.

"Like the daughter of that soldier you met, these kids are all likely to have the potential for strong magical abilities," Chrono answered. "It's been known for a long time that magical ability is something that can be bred into a population and carried through family lines. Also, the longer a group of people eat well and stay generally healthy, magical potential can grow over a period of generations. All these families are from good breading; therefore they probably haven't had much hardship over the centuries. Magical potential tends to degrade in families that end up in poverty and live in bad conditions for a long time."

"There are perfectly strong and healthy people without magic," Nanoha felt the need to point out.

"Yes, the science isn't perfect," Chrono said. "I was speaking in generalities. Often nature doesn't care for the pet theories of humans and throws in things to mess them up. But magical potential is still usually found in families like these, especially on worlds like this one that haven't developed magical abilities at all. Mid-Childa is a little different since we've been exploiting magic for a long time now. We've had centuries for those with magic in their bloodline to intermingle with those that don't and spread it around.

"So these people just grabbed a bunch of kids with a high likelihood for magic? That doesn't sound very good at all."

"No, it doesn't" Chrono agreed. "There have been enough atrocities with experiments on kids on our world. We don't need to let sins like that spread to others."

Nanoha and Fate both smiled at the angry conviction in Chrono's voice. "Chrono—"

Nanoha cut of as harsh red light suddenly bathed the chamber from the large number of awakening alert screens around them. As a loud horn sounded throughout the cruiser, Nanoha felt a shiver run through her body. It got worse as she felt the ship's engines crank up and deliver their tremendous power to the shields.

A comm. screen snapped open next to her with a grey haired man in it. "Captain?" she asked apprehensively.

"Yes," he rumbled ominously. "Something is happening."

*****

When Alice awoke on her fourth day of being a test subject of the still unexplained and mysterious Empire, she felt remarkably well rested. It was the first time she had gotten up before the heavy set soldier slammed their door open as a wake up call. The last few days had settled quickly into a routine and it seemed that her body was already getting used to it much faster than her mind was.

Sitting up in her bed using her remaining hand, she looked down and smirked at her cellmate sleeping blissfully next to her. Azusa was taking the experimenting a lot harder than she was. Alice still didn't know the girl's background, but it seemed that physical exertion had never been a part of her daily routine and the constant demands by Juden for them to use their magic really took a toll on her. Azusa never ever complained about it, but Alice had begun noticing the exhaustion in her facial features at night. Last night she had wanted to go to sleep almost as soon as they had eaten.

"Hey Azusa," Alice said quietly, placing her hands on her cellmate's shoulder.

"Hmmm, what?" Azusa mumbled as she opened her eyes and stared blearily upward.

"Sorry Azu'," Alice smiled. "I just thought I'd give you a gentler way to wake up than the guard."

Azusa smiled back, "Thanks I think." Then she frowned and blinked once, "did you just call me Azu?"

"Uh-huh. Do you not like me using a short form of your name?"

"No I don't mind, not at all," Azusa replied. "It's just funny because my father would be quite angry with me for allowing some random stranger to be so familiar with me."

Alice regarded the other girl with a raised eyebrow. "Stranger? We've shared the same bed for three nights now and endured annoying experiments together. How much closer do we need to get?"

"He wouldn't think that any of that counts," Azusa said wryly. "He's always been strict about the company I keep."

"Sounds tedious."

"Sometimes," Azusa admitted.

There was a familiar click-thunk from the door and as they both looked toward it expectantly, they were both surprised to see it was Juden and not the guard. Even more out of place, Juden wasn't wearing his white coat today. Instead he was in formal military dress. This consisted of loose black pants, a dark green shirt, and a black, wide shouldered coat closed with gold claps instead of buttons. The coat bore decorations that meant nothing to Alice.

"Morning ladies!" Juden declared in his usual good humor. "I have a surprise for you today."

"Is it a day off?" Alice guessed off-handedly.

"Ah…well, yes actually," Juden frowned, momentarily nonplussed by Alice's random but correct guess. "Today is going to be a busy and important day so there won't be any tests."

"Awesome," Alice replied and grinned. "Does that mean we can go back to bed?"

"Of course not!" Juden sounded extraordinarily offended by the notion of lazing about. "I'm here to retrieve you two personally to witness something. It's not optional."

"So much for a possible easy day," she sighed and then nudged Azusa gently. "Well, let's go Azu." Azusa nodded and slid out of the bed. After giving them a moment of privacy to use the facilities, Juden hastened them out into the main hallway.

Today Juden lead them past the labs and then down a weird connecting stairway/hallway to a neighboring building. This one was even more modern and well maintained. The hall now in front of them was all gleaming white tile and the walls were a more normal brick. It was also well lit and each room was very clearly numbered or named. When they passed doors with windows she saw that everyone in the rooms was in uniform.

"Are these the military offices?" Alice asked in curiosity.

"We're all military," Juden corrected. "But yes, this is where the Admiral has his office and where command and control operations take place."

After a rather lengthy walk they descended down a short ramp hallway and then Juden unlocked a set of doors and led them into what looked like some sort of empty lecture hall or theatre. It was a large open space that was dimly lit by a few light fixtures in the ceiling. At the front of the room ten large, flat screen displays were mounted to the wall. The thinly carpeted floor contained a group of at least 50 plus girls ranging from around 6 years old to ten. All of them looked in their direction.

"What's going on?" Alice asked.

"Everyone is here to witness the Empire's efforts," Juden answered proudly. "Go on in and have a seat on the floor with the rest of the girls."

Alice glared at him. "Juden, I know you told us before what you want, but can't you tell why you're doing this? All of this I mean," Alice said, gesturing at the building in general.

"Because we have no choice," Juden answered with surprising seriousness. "Do you really want to know?"

Alice shared a look with Azusa. "Yeah."

"Alright then," Juden said and leaned back against the door frame. "Accept for a moment, that other worlds other than this one exist. Not just across the void of space, but also across dimensions."

"Okay," Alice nodded, not getting where this was going.

"My people are from such a world." Juden gave a laugh at her look of disbelief. "It's true. We come from a place much different from here. In our homeland there exists a great imbalance in power between the Emperor that the people in this town serve and the Vicars of the Faithful. Think of them as a parallel Theocratic ruling class. The Emperor has always controlled the masses and the military and the Faithful have controlled almost everything else, including the magic that keeps everyone alive."

Alice frowned seriously at the Director and she saw that Azusa looked equally dubious of the explanation thus far.

"If this is all true somehow," Alice said slowly. "Why do you need magic to live?"

"Because it controls all of the support systems on our world, that's why. It supplied much of the power to the cities as well as sewage management and other such things. We relied on it to transport food, to build structures and even to distribute water. But since the Fall of the Kings it's use has vanished from the general populous. Now only the Faithful in their Temple have access to it. They parcel it out to the Emperor when they feel like it, but never in large amounts. What they give out now are small amounts of goods produced in the manufacturing facilities of the Walled City within which the Temple resides. Now the general population is starving and dying off by the thousands because everything that supported our civilization went away."

"Why didn't you just use something else to generate power and the other stuff?" Alice asked

"Because we don't know how!" Juden exclaimed. "Until we came here we had no knowledge of how to make anything like that. And we don't have the technology or resources to emulate what you have here. Fossil fuels don't exist on our world."

"That's impossible!" Azusa said, joining the argument. "I've seen the equipment you use and the weapons the soldiers carry. None of it is at all primitive."

"We know how to _use_ everything," Juden retorted. "Everything we use was manufactured by the Faithful. Most of it in fact was stolen. We have no idea how to maintain or build more of what we have. None of the general population was ever educated and given the knowledge base to build and maintain an advanced civilization, it was all given to us and then taken away. Now we are trying to scramble forward in an attempt to keep from losing everything."

"But you yourself seem to be fairly educated," Alice pointed out.

"That's because I and most of my researches are traitors from the Temple," Juden answered. "There they retain some of the knowledge from the past and I learned what I could before leaving with my people; those that couldn't watch our world crumble and die. The Emperor took us in and decided to use our knowledge to create a new, desperate plan to claw our way back before it's too late. To do this we need the Earth."

"Even if all of this is true," Alice argued. "Why didn't you just approach one of the governments of Earth and ask for help?"

Juden looked at her strangely. "One does not trade with the people of the Apostate; even the soldiers would never violate that tenet of the God-Kings. We will take what we need for ourselves. The people of this world have no right to object to this."

"Apostate?" Alice asked in confusion.

Juden opened his mouth to answer, but he closed it again when opposite the room from them, another set of double doors opened. From this walked an older man with salt-and-pepper hair, a military uniform with many more decorations than Juden, and an air of authority about him. He saw them and began walking over immediately and ignored the room full if little girls. Behind him walked an intimidating pair of armed guards in the same armor Alice had seen when she was captured.

"Admiral," Juden said in acknowledgement when the man was close enough.

"Director," the Admiral returned. "Who are these two?"

"Alice and Azusa," Juden made a shooing gesture. "Go have a seat with the others, it will be starting soon."

Alice scowled at being dismissed so suddenly and made to ask for more information on what the hell was going on. A soft tug at the empty sleeve on her right side mad her turn to look at Azusa who shook her head and gestured toward the room. Still frowning she let herself be led away.

As they walked deeper into the room Alice noticed that the other girls were all watching them as they sat in clumps. From the way they whispered to each other Alice figured that they must have been allowed to talk to each other before now. Alice could also feel their curiosity radiating from their staring eyes. Azusa brought them to the back wall of the room and took a seat against it. Alice plopped herself down next to her on the right side.

"This whole place makes me angry," Alice said, leaning into Azusa to speak quietly.

"There's not much we can do about it though." Azu whispered back.

"But look at these girls!" Alice exclaimed softly. "It's wrong for kids like these to be taken away from their families. And you heard Juden; he doesn't care what happens to people from Earth."

"You believed all that stuff about being from another world?" Azusa asked.

"Well….mostly," Alice shrugged. "It would explain a lot of the weirdness from these guys."

"Hey! What's wrong with your arm?"

Alice was so intent on her conversation with Azusa that she hadn't noticed the approach of one of the girls. She was a short, curly blonde haired girl with a face full of freckles. Alice wasn't a very good judge at guessing exact ages, but she would have put this girl around 8 or 9. What surprised her so much though was that the girl asked the question in English. She could speak both English and Japanese, but at home and on the island in general she had always spoken the latter. It felt weird to speak English outside of school.

"What's wrong with your arm?" the girl repeated.

"I lost it," Alice told the girl with a friendly smile. "I had a bit of an accident."

"Does it hurt?"

As Alice opened her mouth to answer that, she noticed that more of the girls had gathered around them. She saw that some obviously understood the conversation because they seemed to be very intent on her words.

"Not really," Alice answered. "It felt funny the first couple of days, but now it's not too bad."

The girl looked at her for a second with a thoughtful frown, and then she walked up and sat down on her other side and snuggled into her. Not really knowing what else to do, Alice put the stump of her right arm over the girl's shoulder. This seemed to trigger something in the other girls because a number of them all moved to sit right next to her and Azusa.

"Ah, Azu? What do I do? I've never been around kids very much," Alice asked in Japanese.

Azu just smiled at her as she hugged a waif thin brunette girl that had climbed into her lap. "Alice, they probably haven't seen their mothers or families for a while. So we probably look like the closest thing to an adult to them. They just want to be comforted and we look a lot nicer to them then the soldiers do. Just let them do what they want."

Feeling awkward, Alice let the kids climb onto her lap as well. Soon enough she and Azusa had a whole crowd on and around them. Alice didn't think she could move there were so many. They didn't really say anything, but they all seem more at ease.

"Okay everyone!" Juden said, crossing to the front of the room, apparently finished with the conversation he'd been having with the admiral. "It's about to start so I would like you to pay attention to the screens."

What's about to start? Alice thought to herself. Juden didn't provide that answer but he did turn around and pull out a remote control. With it he powered on the televisions and slowly pictures took form on them. After a moment Alice saw that each contained a view of a city. From the languages she saw on signs they were each located in a different country. She saw a Japanese city in the bottom left screen but it didn't contain any landmarks or signs that said which one it was.

"Is something supposed to be happening?" Alice asked quietly.

"Dunno," Azusa answered.

"Hey, what are you saying to the lady?" asked the blond haired child. "You're talking funny."

"I am, am I?" Alice grinned.

"Uh-huh,"

"I'm speaking Japanese, that's why you didn't understand us. I was just asking if something was supposed to be going on."

"Oh," the girl said, musing that over with a frown. "What's your names? The bad guys won't tell who you two are."

"The bad guys?" Azusa said, joining the conversation in English. "You mean the soldiers?" The girl nodded. "Well, I'm Azusa and the girl next to you is Alice."

"How about you?" Alice asked.

"Ashley."

Though most of the kids didn't speak English, a large number of them seemed to understand that names had just been exchanged. This caused a rather noisy explosion from the crowd of girls within which Alice assumed they too were trying to introduce themselves.

"Hey! Settle down back there!" Juden yelled from his place at the front. He had rejoined the Admiral by the door. Alice saw the older man just seemed amused by the antics of the kids. "Is that you stirring them up back there Alice?"

"Me?" Alice muttered. "Why do I get blamed all the time?"

"Maybe because you are the one that causes trouble," Azusa laughed. "I don't recall doing anything like setting fires all over the place or attacking soldiers myself."

"You get in trouble?" Ashley asked with wide eyes. "Don't they do horrible things when you do that?"

"Hmmm, kind of," Alice shrugged. "They put a thing on me that hurts a lot when I use magic."

Ashley looked at her funny. "Magic doesn't exist," she said in a serious and knowing manner. "These guys are crazy because they think it does. My mom would call the police if she knew they tried to make me do stuff like that."

Alice wanted to laugh but she didn't think the kid would take it the right way. Here they all were, specimens in an experiment for some mysterious Empire to produce magic users, and one of their test subjects adamantly refused that such a thing existed to begin with. Alice wondered how frustrating the researches found Ashley to be. She hoped the kid gave them ulcers from a lack of results.

"How long have you been here Ashley?" Alice asked out of curiosity.

"A year I think," Ashley answered with a thoughtful frown. "They grabbed me when I was playing with my friends last summer."

"God!" Alice swore, "How many others have been here that long?"

Ashley looked at the other girls for a second. "Maybe half," she guessed. "Then a whole bunch more showed up the other day with you two."

"Ah, it's finally starting!" Juden announced.

Again Alice looked to the screens with the rest of the kids. At first she didn't see what Juden was talking about. Then she noticed a tall and thin thread of blackness spearing up into the sky in four of the TV's. She focused on the one appearing in the unknown Japanese city. Slowly that thread widened until there was a roughly triangular void sitting in the middle of the street. She watched as a car skidded to a halt in front of it and created a traffic jam with those behind it. Suddenly the surface of that void rippled like it would if it was the surface of a pound that a stone tossed into it.

"Here they come," Juden said excitedly. Alice looked over for a second and saw that both he and the Admiral both wore looks of expectation on their faces. What was coming through that was so exciting?

A change in the rippling brought her attention back to the screen. With the roar of a turbine engines, the sleek black shapes of warplanes shot out at a startling velocity and immediately pulled up and out of view. Below them came a running hoard of men. They were all dressed like the soldiers and armed the same way. Then something seemed odd.

All the men running out of the weird hole ignored the Japanese people. The person holding the camera zoomed in for a clearer look and she saw that all the soldiers coming out looked like they were running for their lives. They all wore expressions of terror and many of them were already wounded. She saw one man with blood pouring down his face running at a dead sprint. Alice looked at the other three gates and the scene was the same. This wasn't the impressive arrival of an invading army. It was the flight of one.

"Oh by the Gods!"

Alice turned her head and saw Juden was kneeling on the floor and looking like the world was coming to an end. The Admiral wore an expression of resigned sadness. He said something to soft for her to hear, but whatever it was made Juden go white as their bed sheet.

"Alice, what's going on?" Azusa asked worriedly.

"I think their plan just went badly awry," Alice answered. "If their response is any indicator," Alice nodded her head toward Juden," then I think they might have just lost whatever it was they wanted to do."

"No!"

Juden's cry snapped her attention back to him and then when she saw he was looking at the screens still, she looked too. What she saw there didn't make sense at first. The stream of fleeing men had stopped, but now a single man in extremely anachronistic, shinning green, plated armor with a weird double spiked helmet walked out. Then seven more followed out behind him in a single file. Once they were all out they broke ranks and stood in a roughly equidistant circle. Each man held out his right hand and a tall metal staff appeared there as if it had snaked down their arms.

There was no sound anymore, but Alice saw the movement of the men's lips. As they spoke she saw an odd magical diagram appear on the ground. Instead of being a circle like hers, this one seemed to be made of multiple overlapping triangles. A thread of red light ran out from the diagram to each man's staff. As soon as that was done, a crimson light the color of wet blood began to grow in the middle of the formation. Once it was almost big enough to envelope the people casting the spell, the men knelt to the ground and as one they bowed their heads. There was a flash of red light and then the screen went blank and a 'no signal' message scrolled across.

"Did they all just die?" Ashley asked in a dead, sad whisper into the absolute quiet of the room. Her face was so upset looking that Alice wished she had her whole arm back so she could hug the girl to her properly. All of the girls seemed to squeeze in tighter to her and Azusa for some kind of physical reassurance that what they had just witnessed had not happened. Alice looked at the other three screens in which a doorway had appeared, but they too were now blank and uninformative.

"I…I'm afraid that's probably so," Alice said when the silence dragged out.

This drew Juden's attention back to them. He pulled something from his pocket and after pressing a button on it he shouted, "Alright, all of you, back to your rooms!"

When the grim faced soldier arrived a minute later to escort them, no one dared to say anything. Alice, Azusa and the girls went to their rooms with fear I their hearts. Before they exited the room however, Alice heard the admiral say on last thing to the director.

"It's over Juden. We all took a gamble on this plan, but our dice roll has come up at a loss."

*****

Nanoha stared down into the gleaming surface of the meeting room table. It wasn't providing any of the answers she wished it would, but she did it nonetheless. Next to her Fate sat silent as well.

The two of them had raced to the bridge of the cruiser as soon as the announcement had been made that something was happening again. When they got there it was just in time to see three gateways opening in three different cities; the one in Kyushu, Japan, one in Germany, and one in Turkey. The gateways had been very strange in that they were incredibly different compared to those made with Mid-style magic. So much so that they had allowed for people to simply run through from their world to Earth.

When she had seen the soldiers running through she had been one breath away from calling for the containment barrier team to go down with her to create a perimeter to trap the invaders within a close limit of their gateways, when something else happened.

Those strange men in armor that had come out behind the fleeing soldiers had baffled them all at first. Their armor registered on the ships sensors as bearing a very close resemblance to Mid-Childen barrier jackets and Belkan knight armor. When the staves appeared she thought that they must be devices of some kind, except they didn't react that way. Instead they seemed to only interact with the one specific spell they moved to cast.

Even if Nanoha had given the order for the enforcers to go it wouldn't have been on time to stop what happened. At all three sites SS range magical explosions tore apart the cities they were in. They killed the fleeing men as well as the residents of the city. Not only that, when everything cleared, the mages who had caused those terrible searing events all laid dead on the ground. Their bodies appeared untouched by the violence they had unleashed, but they were indeed dead. And behind them all but one of the gateways were gone, specifically the one on the island of Kyushu.

As soon as she saw that there was nothing that she could do, she called her parents and arranged for her family to be transported up to the _Heibao._ Chrono had done the same for his mother, Lindy, and his family. Now the transport had moved even further away from Earth with orders to observe from a distance. She knew it was selfish of her to save only her family when so many others on Earth were still in probable danger, but she couldn't help it. She _had_ to protect them. There was absolutely no way she could have left Vivio down in harm's way. Fate had tried to convince Arisa and Suzuka to come up too, but they had stubbornly refused. Now she and all the others in the TSAB ships in orbit were going to be moving against the remaining gateway if any—

"They're coming out again!"

Nanoha's head snapped up as the cry came out of the display that appeared next to her without any warning. As she rose out of the seat and half ran to the transport room, she called back to Fate who was right behind her. "You ready?"

"Yes,"

It was a short, terse answer but Nanoha smiled slightly at the anger in it. With the events that had happened before in Fate's life, Nanoha never blamed her when she got angry in situations like this where the people they were going to fight against committed such horrible acts. Nanoha didn't feel happy about it of course, but this was the kind of thing Fate tried to prevent in her job as an enforcer agent.

When they got to the transport room Chrono was already waiting there with a team of six enforcers already in their barrier jackets. The all nodded to them as they prepped themselves.

"Nanoha! Fate!" Chrono said as she approached. "They're using that weird gate as a booster for teleport magic and a small group just jumped into a city nearby. They appear to be shooting at buildings and killing people almost at random. Other groups have also appeared but those seem to be trying to pick fights or something."

"Just send us down Chrono," Fate said with a grim look. "We'll take care of the group you assigned us. The other teams can worry about the other groups."

She and Nanoha both stood with the rest of the strike team on the gate platform and awoke their devices and barrier jackets. Chrono gave them a last smile and then Nanoha triggered the gate.

**

When Nanoha, Fate and their team appeared in the air above a smallish city on the southern coast of the island of Kyushu, it was readily apparent where their targets were. There were three of them, no, there were four. Three of those strange men in armor and another who wore what looked like blue robes with a tabard the same color green as the men's armor. Through Raising Heart she could feel that he too was wearing a barrier jacket. All four men were walking down a wide six lane street in what looked like an important district of some kind since all the buildings were at minimum, four stories tall and extremely modern in architecture. As they walked they were firing off blasts of magical energy into random buildings, cars, fleeing people or whatever.

"Let's go!"

Like glowing magical stones, they plummeted straight toward their assigned adversaries.

"Set up the barrier," Fate ordered as the wind rushed by. At once four of their enforcers shot away in different directions. A second later she felt power flow between the men. There was an odd discoloring of the world as a sphere of magic enveloped them on inside a displacement and containment barrier. This time they would capture someone alive. As soon as the barrier passed over them, the enemy all looked up at them in surprise. They stopped their random violence to consider Nanoha and the others.

Separating to surround them, Nanoha, Fate and the two remaining enforcers landed lightly on the ground, each about 50 feet away from the strangers. "I am Fate Testarossa," Fate spoke. Since she was an enforcer agent, she had the authority to make arrests, so Nanoha was here to provide her support. "I represent the Time-Space Administration Bureau. For the crimes you have committed against this world, you will be arrested. Release your barriers and any other active magic."

At first the man in robes stared at them in surprise. He looked to be somewhere in his upper forties, and he wore a short, carefully trimmed beard of brown hair on a thin, tanned face. He had the weathered look of someone who spent a great deal of time outdoors. After the surprise bled away, the man settled into a thoughtful frown for just a second before finally transitioning into a look of disdain. "I am a sub-priest of the Temple, woman. I will not debase myself in such a way as you have commanded me to. You do not have the power to force me. Swords! Remove these obstacles."

"Aye my Lord," the three men spoke in unison. Instead of the staves they had seen the last time, these men carried strange double tined swords that had had an edge on the outside if each tine and a one inch gape between them. Now they pointed those swords out at them, each picking a separate target. She saw magic gather in those sword gaps and energy crackled in front of each armored man. Nanoha raised an eyebrow at the one aiming at her. His power wasn't actually that impressive. With a yell, the man shot his red, angry bolt of magic at her. Without even moving a muscle or saying a word, she created a light shield over her chest and let the bolt spend itself there. The other men had also fired with equally lackluster results at Fate and the enforcer to Nanoha's left.

"Tshc," the self-declared priest cursed. "Get out of my way heretics, or I will have to do something myself."

"_These guys are no where near as strong as the ones that came through the gate the first time,"_ Fate sent telepathically.

"_No, they can't be more than a C rank at best. And the priest guy doesn't feel that much stronger. Scouts or flunkies maybe?" _ Nanoha sent back.

"Nanoha, Fate," Chrono's face appeared next to each of them. "More teams like the one in front of you have appeared. There are almost 50 of them spread around the south pacific, China, and southern Japan. Their doing the same thing as this one was, committing random and indiscriminate acts of violence."

"Can you tell me where the strongest of them is?" Nanoha asked.

"Hey! Stop ignoring me!" the priest shouted indignantly.

"Somewhere familiar, or at least for you two; there's a guy leading a group that's picking a fight with that military base you went to before. In fact, we got a call asking for our help from a General down there. How'd he manage that?"

Nanoha grinned at the dryness in Chrono's voice, "Because I gave him the ability to. And don't complain about me giving the guy access to magic, it's just a single comm. screen."

"Will you go there?"

"Yeah, just let us take care of these guys first." Chrono nodded and the screen disappeared.

"_Shall I?"_ asked Fate.

"Hey!" the priest said, becoming irate.

"_Go ahead_," Nanoha replied.

Fate raised Bardiche out in front of her body. "**Plasma Lancer," **four glowing and crackling bolts of power formed around Bardiche's head. With the crackle of lightning they snapped out and struck the hastily defending enemies. Each gave a sharp cry of surprise as they slammed to the ground, now without their barriers. The three soldiers wore simple green uniforms with a pin of a sword on one collar and the priest still wore the same blue robes, but the tabard disappeared. Knowing exactly what to do, the two enforces extended their staves and strong bindings coiled around their prisoners.

"Take these four and put them in cells on the transport ship," Fate ordered.

"Aye ma'am," the two walked forward and after a quick call to the ship in question they were surrounded by a magic circle and then they vanished with the prisoners.

"Are we splitting up for now?" Fate asked then.

"It's probably the best we can do at the moment," Nanoha affirmed. "The other teams need to stay intact just in case, but each of us can take two of the remaining enforcers and start hitting the other groups."

"Alright," Fate agreed with a concerned frown, "just be careful."

Nanoha smiled widely, "You too!"

*****

Howard cursed as another of those damn bolts of red light slammed into a truck parked a short distance away from the sandbagged cover he hid behind. The truck exploded with a loud crack and then the remainder burst into flames as the fuel caught. Howard grimaced as he heard the flames crackling away behind the chatter of small arms fire.

All military vehicles were going to be in short supply for a while and any one they lost was going to hurt them. The economies of the world, including the US, were tanking and he'd been told that military supplies were going to be cut to the bone. He's seen on TV that a great deal of public anger was already arising at the gasoline rationing that had been implemented when it had been made clear that the most of the worlds oil production was destroyed. And with the loss of the Panama and Suez canals, shipping costs to the ports that could still operate were growing rapidly. The military was supposed to be getting priority for some supplies like aviation fuel, but it was still going to be hard for a while. This was why he resented the group of four men standing just over a hundred feet away on the base's runway.

They had just appeared there twenty minutes ago and started destroying things at random. A C-130 that had been trying to take off had been blasted into pieces by the strange man in blue robes that seemed to lead the attackers. The weird thing was that he had done that with a strange sword that they all carried. Howard had ordered these sandbag walls made shortly after the attack on Okinawa, just as a precaution, and he blessed his forethought because these were the only things that had kept a lot of men alive. Now the attackers were walking around slowly as they continued their killing and general vandalism.

"Where's the AP gun I called for?!" Howard shouted into his radio.

"Coming now!"

Howard looked down the length of wall his bunker sat against and saw the group of men who had answered. They sprinted, while staying as low as possible, across a small gap of grass to the overturned form of a humvee that had already taken a hit. Once there he watched as they set up a large, long barreled gun on the vehicles bottom with a bipod. As the wielder of the weapon pointed his weapon across the wide open space of the tarmac, a second man handed him a large sized ammo clip.

The weapon was designed to punch through walls and lightly armored vehicles as well as Kevlar vests. So far no one had managed to get anything of smaller caliber past the absurd, glowing red shields the attackers had raised around them. The shields looked like a glowing sphere made of translucent but glowing red smoke, but they had so far resisted all antipersonnel weapons. Now, people were responding as they should to his orders. He would see if these idiots could take a little heavier punishment.

He heard the metallic click as the gunner chambered his first round. Howard looked across to the attackers who were walking casually by a small dorm building as two of the members shot more bolts of light through windows to cause whatever destruction they could. He heard the loud report of the gun. The first round, a tracer, ripped through the air filled with its smaller caliber brethren that were coming in from all over the place and popped against the shield of one of the green armored guys. It didn't penetrate but he saw the man look at the gunner with a frown. That meant he had felt that at least. The many other soldiers that were dug in all around the area gave an excited shout.

"Keep firing," Howard ordered. "Try the rpg next."

Way off to his left he saw a man rise up part way from another bunker against the cafeteria building. When he had heard that he was going to be short on supplies he had ordered a pallet of seized weapons from the Middle East conflicts broken open and inspected for useful things, and RPG's are very useful indeed. They could take out most lightly armored vehicles and could damage some tanks enough to cause problems. Now he saw and heard the hissing rocket motor of his soldier's weapon as it cast itself against the shield of the man standing next to the one taking the AP fire. The weapon detonated harshly and when the kicked up dirt cleared he saw with triumph that the enemy's shield was gone and the man was lookin at least a little injured.

He was about to order for another RPG, but he stopped with his mouth hanging open when he felt a telltale shiver through the ground beneath him. A second later the sound of a powerful diesel engine came to his ears as it approached. Grinning he turned his head to the right and watched a Bradley fighting vehicle come tearing around the side of the building he was against. Without even stopping it trained its main gun at the enemy and fired. 25mm chain gun rounds spat out and demanded death.

Howard's grin vanished as she watched the robed, bearded man raise his sword up. A stronger and thicker looking shield snapped around both him and his subordinates. The shield seemed to shatter the bullets slamming into it. Not willing to be outdone, the crew of the infantry fighting vehicle fired a TOW as well which exploded with an asphalt cracking roar. Then they stopped firing but kept circling to see if they'd made a successful kill.

Despite himself, Howard gasped as an angry, red shaft of light flicked out of the smoke from the missile and punched a hole clean through the Bradley. Then something crackled down that red light and the vehicle exploded and tore apart.

"Damn," Howard swore softly. "What does it take to—?"

He cut off as sky seemed to suddenly darken. In one moment it was all bright sun, and the next it was as if he was looking up through a murky pond. A glance at the base's attackers showed that it couldn't be them causing it; they were all staring upwards with expressions of consternation. The robed man said something to his two remaining soldiers and then he began to float upwards into the air.

Howard was about to curse again, thinking the man was trying to escape using flying magic or something, when yet another thing stopped him. This was a blast of pink light that ripped through the air and sent Howard reeling back from the concussive force of its passing. The light swallowed the flying enemy for a solid three seconds before dwindling away. Like a half full burlap sack, he watched the robed man fall limply and senselessly into the ground. Howard followed back the path the beam had taken and saw a familiar figure standing in midair. That figure raised a very distinctive staff and rings of that same pink light formed and constricted onto the stunned and now outgunned enemy soldiers. Unable to move, they too fell to the ground.

Howard watched in amazement as Commander Takamatchi flew straight to the now downed foes. She pointed her staff at them. "**Sealing,"** it was the same feminine voice the staff had spoken before. Another magic circle formed and the armor the soldiers wore seemed to dissolve way. The commander did the same to the unconscious robed man.

"All men stand down," Howard said disbelievingly into his radio as he got to his feet. He crossed over to the woman. "Commander, was that blast from you? The pink one?"

"Hehe, sorry about that," Nanoha laughed. "Maybe I should have given you a warning of some kind."

"Humph," Howard grunted amusedly. "I don't mind. You took the guy out when we couldn't."

"Actually, you could have," Nanoha smiled. "You came close to cracking his shield with that last missile. That's probably why he tried to take to the air. He decided he didn't want to be your target anymore. Unfortunately the sky is my territory."

At that last Howard saw something almost predatory in the woman's good natured smile. He remembered the respect that ship captain had given this woman and he now understood a little as to why he had. This woman was a lot more formidable than her appearance suggested.

"What did you do to them?" he asked.

"Oh, I placed a powerful seal on their magical abilities," this time the woman's smile was clearly of satisfaction. "Unless another mage with my power or higher removes it for them, they won't be able to use magic for a very long time."

"And how powerful are you?" Howard asked out of curiosity.

"On the TSA's scale, I'm currently an S+ aerial mage. I could possibly test for SS class, but I haven't felt the need to yet. Fate is about the same."

Howard had to think for a second to work out the letter ranking scale, but when he did he was impressed again. It meant he was talking to someone very powerful indeed.

"Sorry Major," Nanoha said, interrupting his musings. "But this isn't the only group like this and I need to get going to help take care of them. Can you hold these guy for now, our ship will grab them when they can, but they should probably be locked up till then."

"Certainly," Howard confirmed. "Will you let us know what they tell you?"

"Yes, Admiral Harlaown has taken up the task of doing the interrogations. I'll make sure he sends you and the General whatever information he gets."

With that Commander Takamatchi looked up at the sky again. On her ankles wings sprang into existence that was again made of that pink light that seemed to signify her magic. She leapt into the air and like before she shot off quickly into the distance. As soon as she was gone, the sky returned to its normal colors.

******

Fate slumped tiredly into a chair that sat inside the cabin she was sharing with Nanoha. She and all the other enforcers had spent the entire rest of the day chasing down and then apprehending the rampaging mages that had come through the gate. The mages hadn't been all that powerful on an individual basis, but there had been so many of them.

In the end Chrono had authorized her use of a large-scale ritual weather control spell. She didn't use magic like that often anymore, but it had been useful. Her lightning had managed to take out three groups that had been in close proximity in one go.

"Fate?"

She looked up and smiled as Nanoha walked in with two steaming cups of tea. After handing her one, Nanoha sat down next to her on the nearby bed.

"Has Chrono got anything from them yet?" Fate asked.

"Yes," Nanoha answered with a small frown. "They all say the same thing. They were ordered to come here and search for signs of someone they call the Apostate. But that's it. They won't tell us anything else of this Temple they claim to serve or its intentions."

Fate sighed. They didn't seem to be making much progress at all, she thought. She felt warm arms slip around her from behind the chair and she looked up at her shoulder to into Nanoha's gentle and smiling face.

"We've done enough for today, Fate." she said. "Now we need to rest for tomorrow."

Fate nodded her agreement, "yes."

******

"Alice….Alice…Alice!"

"Huwaaa," Alice moaned sleepily.

"Alice, you need to wake up!" She felt small hands grip her shoulders and shake her body slightly.

"What's going on Azu?" Alice said in half-awareness. She and Azusa, after returning to their room had decided to take a nice little nap to rest up while they could. "Something going on?"

"Yes!"

This time Alice heard the panic in Azusa's voice and her eyes shot open as a sudden flush of adrenalin pumped into her body. Thinking there was some danger to Azusa; she shot up and looked around protectively. When she locked her eyes on her cellmate and friend, she saw surprise instead of fear there. "What's going on?"

Azusa pointed toward the foot railing of the cot bed. "There's…well…a person. Sort of."

"What do you mean 'sort of'?"

Feeling like she almost gave herself whiplash, Alice's snapped in the direction of the high, indignant, female voice. There, right where Azu was pointing was a person. She was impossibly tiny. She could be no taller than Alice's hand was long and she wore baggy pants and a loose shirt. Her long, strange, blue hair cascaded down her back as she sat on the rail of the bed with her legs crossed casually at the ankle. She looked like a literal, living doll.

When Alice locked her baffled eyes on those of he tiny woman's, the woman grinned and gave her a jaunty wave. "Hi!"


	4. Partner

Warm afternoon sunlight, speckled lightly with random bits of dust floating in the air, streamed in through twenty arched windows. Each of those windows was at least thirty feet in height and framed in white stone. The panes themselves were absolutely clear and let the light bathe the large and airy chamber those windows watched over. Inside that stone walled room was a group of seven men and one woman, each wearing red cassocks and around each of their necks hung a jeweled pendant, each of a different color. Those people, each clearly old in years, sat around a highly polished, round table set in the middle of a tiled floor which gleamed in the sunlight. The mood in the room however was much darker than the scene implied.

"What do you mean they've scattered!" High Vicar Stonetree growled irritably at the other assembled personages of the Council.

"It's exactly like I just told you," another man responded with the barest minimum of the courtesy required for Stonetree's position. He was Vicar Thornhollow, the current head of the Inquisition and unofficially second in political power. He sat ninety degrees to Stonetree's right. "We hit the island as hard as we could, but they must have had an ear somewhere here in the Walled City. They knew we were coming so they fled. Many ran through the open Doors, but most managed to disperse here in this world. Those that fled through the Dimension Doors were successfully executed by the deployed extermination teams. All of the relics and stolen Kafig Soldaten were successfully recovered. Finding the ones that fled here isn't all that important anyways. They will just be taken care of in the Cleansing."

"That's true," Stonetree acknowledged, now much calmer. "But having a few ten thousand men or so less to deal with would make that task slightly easier. What about the search?"

"The fodder has been getting chopped up almost as fast as we send them through," Said another man sitting directly across from Stonetree. His withered, white haired visage belied the steel within him. Vicar Mountainrun was the current head of the Temple intelligence network. He was in charge of the probing attempts they had been making against the Apostate's world. "No sign of Him has appeared yet. The teams are all getting picked off by groups of other magic users. Some of those are quite powerful in their own right, but they are nothing compared to what records say the Apostate could wield. We have generated an enormous number of provocations and slaughters against the lost population, but he hasn't shown up to defend them."

"Perhaps he is no longer there," Stated the lone woman on the council. Tradition and scripture demanded that there always be one woman the council, Vicar Bloodreed made that edict difficult to follow most of the time, but her blunt personality hid her inner intelligence beneath it. She was a distinctly older woman in her later years with straw colored hair that looked bleached from age. She headed the ministry in charge of researching and developing magic. "He is known, at least in the records we have, of being unpredictable. Maybe he no longer cares about that world."

"It would be a happier thing to find him already dead and in the ground," Thornhollow groused. "If he is not there any longer, than we can wipe the unclean from that world and take it for ourselves to do with as wish. The Emperor obviously wanted something from it so there is something of value to be had."

"Tsch, how likely is that?" scoffed the Vicar of Finance. "According to all reports, that world is already heavily exploited. We would simply be picking through the scraps of the lost."

"They didn't send Admiral Ravant and our traitors there for no reason at all," Stonetree pointed out.

"I may have an idea," Mountainrun answered with a raised finger to get the others attention. "From the answers we have garnered through interrogations of captured Imperial soldiers, I have a rough outline of their objectives. I believe their goal was the lost themselves."

"What?" Thornhollow demanded. "What would they want with them?"

"They seek to break our hold on magic," Mountainrun responded ominously. "They pointed the destination for the Doors at places were they found that a large concentration of magically strong individuals lived. They were going to take an enormous number of them and bring them here to be interbred among those under the Emperor's control. They wanted to breed magic users that they could use against us."

"Wouldn't that take generations to exploit?" Stonetree argued. "They would have to somehow raise and train those eventual offspring when they have no magic users to do so."

"They probably planned to steal some of our instructors and force them to do it," Bloodreed interjected. "They have become remarkably free with that tactic of late."

"There were other benefits to the plan as well," Mountainrun added. "All the locations were in areas containing people with high levels of education and technology. I believe one location contained a research center for developing better crops. Even without gaining magic, they would have gained much to help retain the Emperor's power.

"Well, that doesn't matter too much now," Stonetree said, getting back on track. "If the Apostate is not there or no longer cares about what happens to that world, then we are free to move forward unhindered. Are the Swords ready to begin?"

"They can move at a moments notice," Thornhollow responded proudly. "I have two companies ready to move on the Imperial city along with almost all four thousand of our remaining Kafig Soldaten. I'll only be keeping back the ones being used in the Temple defense squads. We've also managed to get a couple of the stronger Relics moving again. The God-Kings have truly shown their favor for this endeavor."

"That's good news," Stonetree smiled as he touched his hand to his pendant out of reflex at the mention of their Holy Lords. "What about the force to attack and cleanse the other world?"

"Still forming for now, but I will be sending one of my bishops through early with a few of the stronger priests and their men to guard the gateway until we are ready. While we are on this topic however, I would like to ask permission for another, related task I would like to undertake."

"Oh?" All the other Council members sat a little more attentively at hearing that there might be something new up for discussion.

"Holiness, my men have found the Admiral and the traitors he has enlisted for their profane efforts," Thornhollow gave a confident grin. "I ask for permission from the council to send the appropriate execution force for their sins."

This caused a general susurration of lowly spoken comments to ripple across the table. The traitors were a sore subject with all of them. None wanted to let those that had turned their backs on the Temple to escape its justice. Those men had injured the pride of powerful people when they escaped to the Emperor with their knowledge and training.

"Council, do you approve of this motion?" Stonetree asked. "Shall we allow the Inquisition to punish these men?"

As powerful edicts commanded for council votes, each man and woman placed their palms flat onto the table and sent into it a flow of magic containing their answer. Once all eight Vicars had done this, the table's surface rippled once before a large black sigil arose as if floating up from the bottom of a lake to the surface of the table. It was one of only four possible responses the table was capable of producing.

"It has been approved," Stonetree said with a small smile. "Vicar Thornhollow, you may deliver the Temple's punishment as you have requested. Do not fail in this task." It was a ritual ending to any vote made by a member of the Council who had requested something, but all knew it could be strictly enforced at times.

"Now then," Stonetree said. "Let's move onto some of the more normal business.

******

Stonetree watched the beautifully polished bronze door shut behind the last departing Vicar and he let out a great sigh. He had been feeling his years more often of late, and the session had gone on longer than usual thanks to the added topic of the coming wars. It was something that absolutely had to be done, but it was no less tiring because it was so.

He would not let age and fatigue to cause him to fail. Hirtolia was a withering and dying civilization and he intended to cut off the infected and useless parts that were dragging down the healthy portion. Like the draining of a cyst, it was a painful, disgusting and often messy task, but not doing so would only aggravate the problem further.

The Emperor's mad plan to bring the lost here so he could make his own magic users would have been like deliberately giving an obese man a serious disease in order to help him lose weight. Either way you would lose. And the idea of letting the Emperor and his followers anywhere near magic always stuck in his craw. It was bad enough the Temple still sent out goods to the other cities and that they had been letting the stolen armor and weapons slide for over a decade. Now they had the justification to eliminate the entire Imperial government and to bring the entire world under the Temple's rightful control.

He heard the door click open again and when he looked over a plainly dressed man in a gardener's smock and trousers walked in. He was the exact same man who had reported to him the doings of the Emperor on his island property. He had been dressed as an inquisitor then, but it was the man's task to switch roles as needed. He was in reality, Stonetree's personal spymaster.

"Well Gardener," Stonetree said with amusement. "What is our favorite crackpot potentate up to now?"

"Quite predictably, he is shoring up the defenses around the Imperial city and the Palace. It appears he has gotten his greedy hands on a warding generator or two to assist in this task. The Palace is now shut tighter than it has ever been. There are layers of barriers and shields in place now that will be tough, but not at all impossible to crack."

"Odious man!" Stonetree complained aloud. "I wouldn't be surprised to find he's been stealing our underwear next. This is annoying news, but it's not outside of our planned possibilities. What about the general populous?"

"Conditions continue to worsen," the man said quietly. "Food production has gone up slightly, but there is just no way to move it into the cities fast enough. People also refuse to move out into the rural areas to take up farming. Neither we nor the Emperor has had any more success in that area. Disease has also increased along with general lawlessness. Many of the relatively rich have been gathering their families into closed and walled compounds to protect themselves from everyone else."

"A bunch of idiot they are," he sighed. "This is why they must all disperse or die. They are just sitting there, rotting in the cities, unwilling to help themselves. They will soon find themselves dead or thoroughly disabused of their current plans. Is there anything else I didn't ask about?"

"No, Holiness."

"Then go ahead and be about your work."

******

Grand Bishop Harian, leader of an inquisitorial punishment force, breathed deep as soon as he stepped through the portal to the apostate world. Beneath his feet crunched the gravel and stone that had once been part of a road and the buildings nearby before the explosion caused by the extermination squad had reduced it to this state. As he looked about, everything was destroyed. In the evening light, buildings that hadn't fallen in the initial blast sagged and gaped, their horrible wounds almost too much to bear. In all, he felt a sense of satisfaction.

Long ago this world had caused his plenty of trouble, so now the Temple would return that and then some. As he walked into the ruined remnants of a city, his men scurried about, preparing for their given task. Some continued to come running through the portal. They had to hurry to secure the area before those strange magic users showed up to hinder them.

He felt a deep tremor in the ground through his thick protective boots and he turned back to regard the portal. Through it came four enormous, wheeled vehicles. They stood much taller than his above average height and bore the strange markings that all Relics possessed. As soon as the massive machines were clear, they drove outwards a short ways and came to a stop. Four needle-like tines, each almost 2 feet long, extended upwards from each of their roofs. Deep within his chest he felt a shivering as powerful magic was awoken and within those spikes light coalesced. When it had grown to an almost inconceivable level, to the point where he was sure the vehicles would have to explode, the energy lashed out in bubbles of tenuous light strands. After another moment, those faded away as the barriers settled into place.

Those things would certainly keep anyone from interfering he thought as he turned back to watching his men. In total there were just over four thousand of them. Each had proven his loyalty to the Temple and to the Bishop himself. Now they were here for the important task of punishing those traitors who had turned away from the correct path.

Moving among them, he chivied them into order. He checked and doubled checked everything and when he was done, row after row of proud, disciplined men stood before him. Bowing his head before the assembled men, he touched his hand to the Sword attached to the neck of his armor. As one, the men did the same.

"Punishment Force Seven," he intoned in his rich, deep, tenor. "The council has given us the will of the God-Kings. Under my command we shall carry out our given task. We dare not fail in this task. Will you attend to this duty with pride in your hearts and anger in your sword?"

"Yes, Holy Bishop, this task is ours. By the command of the God-Kings, so shall it be," came the rumble of four thousand voices.

Raising his helmeted head, Harian surveyed his men just once more. Then he nodded in satisfaction. All was in readiness. "Teleport teams, man your places," he commanded. As soon as his command had left his mouth, ten teams of four men each gathered around their team leaders. The leaders all raised into the air, a ten foot long staff with golden metal at one end. They grounded the plain end to the gravel and their teams cast their power to them. The golden end split into two parts and rings of magical power pulsed around them. After a minute of this an enormous magic circle glowed into existence beneath the feet of the entire force of men.

"We are ready, Bishop," called one team leader.

"Then take us to the enemy. We have the work of the Gods to do today."

Light enveloped them all and when it cleared, only the shield trucks and their guards remained behind.

******

Nanoha knew she couldn't have been asleep for very long when the she and Fate were awoken by the blare of an alarm. It's unwelcome noise intruded upon the darkness of the cabin they had been given, but a wave of hand and a mental command silenced it.

"What's going on now?" she asked as she sat up. Next to her Fate was already standing to get back into uniform.

"Another transference through the gate ma'am," came the response from the comm. officer she knew had been waiting for her and Fate. She appreciated his tactfulness of not opening a communication window. "It's a big one this time. Before a wide area barrier was put into place we detected the arrival of a large number of men. A few even appear to have considerable personal power this time."

Nanoha sighed and looked over to Fate with a small smile. "I guess it was a little to much to hope that the enemy would be willing to give us a night's rest."

"How do you know it's even night on the other side of that gate?" Fate countered with a smile to match hers. "Now hurry up and get dressed. You can't go out half dressed."

"Hai hai," Nanoha yawned as she stood to obey.

Once they were back in uniform, the exited the cabin together to gather some enforcers to go investigate the newest incursion.

******

"Hi!"

Alice blinked once, and then a second time. It didn't make what sat on the rusty foot railing of their bed disappear as it should. There, only a few inches from her and Azusa's feet was a tiny woman. The girl's flowing, baggy tan pants and loose white shirt shifted as she absently kicked her sandal clad feet and her long, dark blue hair hung down loosely like an ocean wave caught in time. She had naturally tanned skin and a very pretty, if very tiny, face with very expression filled eyes. She had one arm raised in a cheerful wave to accompany her greeting. When she dropped it she cast an amused, mock glare at Azusa.

"What do you mean I'm 'sort of' a person?"

"I…uhm," Azusa stammered a flustered reply. "Well, you're just so…very small. I didn't think you were real until Alice saw you too."

"Heh, of course I'm real!" the small woman laughed. "I'm talking to you aren't I?"

Ignoring the few remaining aches from her still healing wounds, Alice rolled forward onto her knees and then leaned forward again so that her face was a foot away from the little person. Raising a curious hand she reached to touch her with a finger.

"Hey! Stop that!"

Alice jerked her hand back in surprise and sat on her bottom again. Her finger had passed right through the tiny woman and a sharp tingle had traveled up her arm. Somehow she knew she had been feeling magic, and not her own.

"Alice!" Azu said in a reprimanding tone. "That was rude. What if you had hurt her? She's too small to just poke your finger at."

"Uh, sorry," Alice said with a chagrined nod to both her friend and their odd visitor. "I just wanted to make sure I was really seeing this."

"I don't see what there is to be so skeptical about," the girl huffed. "You two can both use magic, so why is it hard to believe I'm real?"

"We've just never seen a girl that was only six inches tall before," Azu smiled gently. "So who are you?"

At this question the girl grinned openly. "My name is Lushia, and I am the contingency plan that will deal with this little problem Earth is having at the moment. I am here to carry out the last commands of my late Master to that effect."

"Contingency plan? Do the problems you're referring to mean these invaders from the other world?" Azusa asked.

"Yes, a contingency plan," Lushia said proudly. "And they are from just one of literally countless worlds; there isn't just one of them out there."

"What else have they been doing?" Alice said. "We saw their failed invasion."

Lushia shook her head, "That was just the small force under the Emperor's command. Now it will be the more powerful Temple running things and they are a far more unpleasant group." She flipped a hand up and both Alice and Azusa blinked as several screens appeared in mid air supported by nothing. In each they saw craters and other assorted damaged from powerful explosions. Every second or so the images would change to show another devastated location. "This was what the Emperor's men did here on earth. The same day you were captured the Admiral ordered this attack to destabilize the earth and all the governments on it so that they wouldn't be able to interfere with any kind of cohesion when their forces came through. As you can see, losses are already extremely high."

Alice felt the blood drain from her face and a chill went through her as a low roll of ominous thunder sounded from outside the building. She hoped and prayed her father was alright, a lot of the images were of military installations. "How do you know that? Were you watching us?"

"In a way, yes," Lushia replied. "I'm definitely not here by coincidence. I was awoken from stasis for stopping this very occurrence and I need help to do so. So I came here."

"Does that mean someone foresaw this happening and left you in place to deal with it?" Azusa asked.

"Yes," Lushia nodded, pleased that they understood. "My late Master did indeed foresee a need for a day like today."

Alice frowned at that. "Can you tell us why this is happening at all? And who is this Master anyways?"

"Those questions are closely intertwined," Lushia answered. "But I don't mind telling you.

Lushia hopped off the rail and instead of going through the bed like Alice expected since her finger had earlier, Lushia landed lightly on the sheet and it depressed beneath her small weight. Then she sat down and leaned back comfortably.

"I'll just start at the beginning," Lushia smiled.

After clearing her throat unnecessarily, Lushia started her tale at the same time as rain began to pour down outside.

*

"I'm not sure about the exact date, but well over a thousand years ago my master lived on another world. This world, whose name he never told me, was extraordinarily advanced in terms of both technology and magic. They could perform miraculous and horrifying feats in their daily lives that most people today would shudder to see.

"My master however was a terminal paranoiac. I don't know his exact status, but he was high up in that world's society. For some reason he never explained in detail to me he decided that his world was going to destroy itself. Without explaining anything to his peers, he built a powerful and well equipped ship and used it to flee into the inter-dimensional sea. "

"At first he traveled most at random, never settling down anywhere in particular. But then something terrible happened. His paranoia about the death of his home world proved true. This tragedy shook him greatly. Its one thing to predict the end of the world because of vices you alone see before you, but to actually see it happen as you predicted was a terrifying thing for him. The destruction of his world occurred on such a massive scale that even now you can't find it. My master believed that it tore itself out of the fabric of reality and ceased to exist, leaving only pieces behind."

"After his world's death, my master made his way into this part of the multi-verse. He enjoyed it because it was sparsely populated and none of those worlds within it were home to magic users. Eventually he made his way here to Earth and found that he liked the place. Hiding his true nature, he walked among the people here and decided to make it his new home. In particular he liked the people in what is still called the East. He spent most of his time among the peoples of China, South-East Asia and Japan.

"The only problem he saw was that there were people here attempting to use magic. Their attempts were fumble footed, crude and backwards by his standards, but it unnerved his paranoia nonetheless. So he decided to do something to prevent magic from growing on this world."

"You'll have to believe me when I say this, but my Master was a horrendously powerful man magically speaking. Like a lot of his people, my late Master could do things with magic that is now only dreamed of. With this power and the minor assistance of the powerful generators and computers he had aboard his ship, he spent a long two years crafting an enormous seal onto this world and hid it on the moon. He also spent a few years adding other supporting magics that were not explained to me, but the main one was that seal. It prevented anyone on Earth from triggering their inborn magical abilities on their own."

"Unfortunately for my Master however, his paranoia never really calmed down despite these efforts. So he decided that he would only stay awake for a couple years at a time and that he would sleep in a magical stasis between those periods. This he thought, would keep anyone from learning who he was and trying to get at his magic."

"During one of these periods of wakefulness, several centuries after he started skipping through time, my Master, as he was wont to do when his curiosity grabbed him, visited some of the other worlds in the general vicinity of this one. On one of those, in a place name Belka, he found me. At the time he visited Belka, they were in the middle of a rather vicious and bloody war of unification. To my Master's disgust he found that the Belkans were using remnants of his dead home world in their efforts to slaughter and destroy each other. When he found such things he ruthlessly destroyed them. The exception was when he found me."

"I am what is usually called an intelligent device. A construct and artificial intelligence designed to aid and improve upon the natural abilities of a knight, what you would call a mage. Devices are powerful computers given a type of sentience. I was an experiment to create a whole new kind of device called Unison devices which were supposed to be an even closer joining of master and device. I was deemed a failure."

"As you saw, I only have an odd kind of physical form like this. The later designs were supposed to get real, semi-biological bodies, but I was made like this. I was given master after master, but they didn't care for the results they got from those experiments, so they planned to have me broken down and destroyed."

"But then, happily, my Master showed up at the lab because he detected the technology it held, some of which had apparently come from his world. As he laid about destroying the place, he found and then chose to rescue me. A choice as you can understand, I am extremely grateful for this."

"When the two of us left Belka and returned to Earth, my Master failed to notice that he had been tailed by a group of powerful Belkan nobles who had become outcasts after their bid for power had been repulsed. They followed on their ship and found this sector of the multi-verse and decided that they liked that there was no one here that had the strength to oppose them. They picked the lightly populated world of Hirtolia as their target."

"At the time, Hirtolia was barely inhabited at all and its resident population was barely above the hunter-gatherer level in any place you looked. Seeing such primitive and also extremely superstitious people with no way to defend themselves, those Belkan nobles moved in. Once there, they arrived in such an awesome display of power that the people of the time thought they must be gods. The Belkans liked that notion so they ran with it all they way. Within a couple of years that entire planet was convinced that they were gods given mortal shells and that those gods had arrived to improve their lives."

"Those conquering nobles completely warped the natural growth of civilization on that world. They quickly set about creating cities and the like and building temples to themselves along with all the modern conveniences they wanted. When the formerly high mortality rate of infants dropped massively under their rule, the population of Hirtolia exploded. Before they had been used to having only one or two of eight or more births surviving past the age of three, but then suddenly they had modern medicine given to them by the auto-medic machines aboard the Gods' ship. This caused a desire by the Belkans to expand their rule, so they created even more cities and created a puppet Emperor to rule the people so they didn't have to do it on a day-to-day basis themselves."

"But then, after almost a century of exploitation, they remembered my Master. They came here and their arrival triggered the wards my Master had in place which woke him from his sleep. They entreated upon him to do the same here that they were doing on Hirtolia and join them in their delusions of godhood. Master was disgusted by the notion and told them to leave and not to pester him about it. So they left."

"But they didn't stay gone. They were not content with ruling one world. They convinced their world's inhabitants that the ones living here on Earth were devils and heretics serving an evil lord. They raised armies and tried to invade this world. Unfortunately for them, my master was still a paranoiac. He had created hair trigger wards and displacement barriers that quickly shoved the invaders into a safe and empty pocket space. The rank and file soldiers thought that space really was this world so they tried to set about destroying it. Instead, my master collapsed the pocket space with them inside, shoving them all into the harsh and immediately deadly realm on dimensional space. Tens of thousands died in an instant."

"Angered by this failure and afraid of the display of power my Master had shown them, the pretending Gods riled up their people even further and created a Holy Temple for the purpose of 'cleansing' this world and theirs of those that didn't believe in the God-Kings. Thousands of eager priests and what have you, tried to cross over to Earth and be the ones to accomplish this task. Some came when my master was in a sleep cycle and tried to set up families here to oppose him. They caused a lot of ruckus and even managed to steal a portion of my Master's ship that he had detached and landed on earth for his own use. The descendants of these are the ones that caused all the damage a few days ago. "

"My master was so angered by what he considered to be an intrusion upon his peaceful life here that he finally decided to do something about it. He brought the war to the Belkans and showed them the true extent of his terrible power. His wrath was terrible because he was forced to go through all the Belkan's followers to get to them. In the end they did something both insidious and genius."

"Seeing their own defeat coming, the Belkan's took their own devices and wiped the intelligences from them. After this act they created new ones with their own voices and personalities embedded in them and created a Council of Vicars who would be their chosen 'vessels' when their mortal bodies died. These Vicars, who all now take the names of the original eight when they take office, believe that the voice coming from their devices really is that of one of the Gods."

"My master didn't know of this at them time, so he simply went about slaying them. One by one they fell in terrible battle. There are scars all over Hirtolia that still display the strength of the forces that were unleashed. The final battle however took place almost ten years after the first since the Belkan's spent a great deal of effort in running away. Then, with the nuisances gone, my Master returned to earth again."

"He continued to monitor Hirtolia after that and conditions became terrible almost immediately. Since most of the population had simply lived on the Belkan's handouts, they had little idea how to operate most of the technology and they had no idea at all of how to make more. The only real technology they managed to retain was mining since they had been forced to do that the hard way with manual labor. Most of the population was also still completely illiterate so those that did have knowledge had a terrible time trying to teach it. In the end the world split between those that wanted to follow the Emperors who claimed that they would find a new path for Hirtolia and the Temple which said that they would listen to the voices of the Gods that they'd been bequeathed and lead Hirtolia to a better future."

"My master didn't really care either way, so he made an effort to remove any memory of earth from the minds of Hirtolia's citizens. As you can see, he obviously failed to do so entirely. But that's why he left me. He knew he was a paranoiac with a bad habit of being right, so he left me behind to keep watch just in case, along with a few surprises if things get rough."

*

When Lushia finally finished her story, Alice just stared at the minuscule woman and the storm outside was in full swing and its sounds were for a moment, the only thing filling the room. It was as fanciful and bizarre a tale as she had ever heard. "You're saying that these people really think that the people of the earth are all followers of the enemy of their Gods?"

"For the most part, yes," Lushia nodded. "Especially the Temple, some of those folks are pretty zealous about it. The Emperor is more pragmatic about using this world, but he doesn't especially care what happens to its people because of this history."

"But what happened to this master of yours," Azu asked. "Is he asleep again or something?"

"Nope!" this time Lushia laughed. "Something happened that I had warned him about for years. He fell in love with some high born girl in China and decided to marry her. To prevent himself from fleeing back into stasis and running away from the girl, he smashed the tank and sealed the room against himself. That was when he put me in charge of the contingency plans. After that he just lived out the rest of his years with that woman and ignored almost everything else."

"So…what now?" Alice asked. "Why are you here with us in this room?"

"Because of what started to happen fifty years ago," Lushia answered promptly. "That was when the seal on the earth started to unravel. That unraveling triggered my awakening early and I watched as it continued to deteriorate. A decade or so ago there were a number of powerful mages who awoke to their powers here and their battles did even more damage to the seal as well as the actions of another group of mages I've been watching who have been visiting Earth and its environs quite often of late. Just over a month ago however, the seal and its protective fields finally collapsed."

"That was when my magic suddenly became easier to use," Alice noted. "Is that why?"

"Yes, before then the seal, weak as it was, tried to do its job and hindered you. I felt you and this girl here, whose magic had also grown then, as well as many of the children they've gathered here. And then to my horror I found that I had somehow missed the arrival of the Emperor's men. But now I'm going to execute the task I was commanded to do."

"And you can do that here?" Azu asked.

"Yes!" Lushia said, clapping her hands once delightedly. "The requirements I was given was to find and choose as my new master, the strongest Earth-born mage I could find who wasn't already aligned with another power. There are several mages who are a great deal stronger than you two on the earth, but those are already fighting against the Temple alongside that organization I mentioned before and they already have devices, so that leaves you two as my candidates."

Alice felt her eyebrows try to climb into her hair and Azu looked equally dumbfounded. "You want one of us to become you new master?"

"Yep," Lushia nodded energetically. "I can't use any of my higher functions without being bonded to a master. So I need one of you to fulfill that role. But the choice is quite obvious now that I've met you both in person and felt your powers," she paused to point at Alice. "It has to be you."

"Wait! Why me?" Alice asked, jerking backwards.

"Because," Lushia said, as if she were talking to a slow child. "Your magic is much more compatible with me then hers," she jerked a thumb at Azusa. "In overall strength, she beats you hands down, but her magic isn't oriented in the right manner to suit my nature. And she hasn't even developed her magic to even the very limited ability that you have."

"I don't think I mind not being chosen," Azusa laughed. "You can go ahead if you want to Alice."

"What?! Why do you think I want to?" Alice asked in puzzlement. "I don't even know what volunteering to this would entail. For all I know she needs my soul or something."

"Soul?" Lushia said. "Why would I need something like that? I just need someone to be my master, or mistress in this case, so that I can fight off the Hirtolians and if necessary, activate a number of contingency programs my late master left in place for me to use. As just a device I am unable to do so under my own authority."

Azusa raised one amused eyebrow at Alice, "I know you're thinking about doing it Alice. You're always talking about wanting to do something about this situation, and now you can. And you already know how to fight a little bit, so it wouldn't be too strange really. I think the role suits you."

"You really want me to do it Azu?" Alice asked.

"Uh-huh," Azusa nodded happily. "I've really been worried that you'd do something reckless and get hurt again, but now you can do it this way, it's safer. And besides, it sounds kind of cool doesn't it?"

Alice snorted a laugh at her friend. "I don't know how much rational thought there is in looking cool, but I admit that this sounds interesting. And I don't know what Juden plans on doing with us now that they're going to be on the losing side of a civil war. He could just decide to dispose of all of us girls to remove a hindrance for if they have to flee this place."

Azusa suddenly looked alarmed. "I forgot all about him! You don't think he'd just kill us all?"

Alice nodded grimly. "That's exactly what I think he'd do if it becomes necessary. Remember, he talked about doing dissections of other kids without any kind of remorse." Her mind suddenly filled with a vision of Ashley, the cute kid that had clung to her earlier, dead by Juden's hands. The idea of such a thing filled her with a protective anger like never before. There was no way she could let Ashley and the others meet such an end.

"I can agree to be your mistress under one condition," Alice said, looking to Lushia who'd been following their conversation from her place on the bed.

"Let me guess," Lushia said with a pleased smile. "You want to get the other kids to safety. Right?"

"Exactly."

"Then there's no problem at all," Lushia answered, standing back up on the bed. As she grinned, a particularly bright bolt of lightning crackled outside and bathed the room in harsh light. "I happen to dislike, from personal experience, the excesses done to subjects in experiments performed upon living things. I would be happy to help in this task."

"Great!" Alice said. "Then you've got yourself a mistress."

Azusa snorted and suddenly burst into giggling laughter.

"What?" Alice and Lushia asked almost as one.

"Nothing," Azu laughed. "It's just that you sounded kind of dirty when you said it that way, Alice."

Alice rolled her eyes in amusement. "The things I'm discovering about you Azu." She turned to Lushia. "So what do I do?"

"Not much really," Lushia grinned. She held out her tiny right arm and snapped her finger. The screens from before disappeared and two objects faded into view. One was an exquisitely faceted gem of the same dark blue as Lushia's hair. The other was a long ouroboros made of carved, jointed links of onyx. The serpent had a spherical jewel the same color as the other one attached to its tail and its tiny pointed jaws were clamped firmly onto it.

"What are these?" Azusa asked. "They're kinda pretty."

"That," Lushia pointed to the lone gem, "Is my primary intelligence core. The other one contains my secondary back-up as well as the rest of the device components. Now, Alice, I need you to lay flat on the bed."

Careful not to move her leg onto Lushia, Alice complied with the instruction.

"Now you, Azusa, I need you to stand behind her and hold her arms… well, her one arm down."

"What?" Azusa asked as she stood up. "Why?"

Lushia sighed dramatically. "As I told you, I was considered a failed prototype. One of the reasons was because the bonding process can be somewhat unpleasant. The other is because the bonding is permanent and can't be broken while the master is still alive. My last master wasn't a true one because he refused to bond to me because of that last reason. Most devices are not like this at all so my developers thought me to be a failure. I was too odd for them to accept."

"Eh, how unpleasant is it going to be?" Alice asked.

"Enough that you might try and tear me off," Lushia answered. "That's why your friend needs to keep your hand away until we're all done."

"Ok, so now what?"

"Unbutton the top part of your shirt; I need to be able to see the top part of your chest." Alice complied and when the metal of the punishment plate appeared Lushia glared at it. "What is that thing doing there?"

"Juden put it on me," Alice shrugged. "It's supposed to make me behave."

"Well, it's in my way," Lushia waved her hand at it and with the sound of a releasing suction cup, the plate pulled off her chest and was then flung aside where it tinged against the hard floor. "Now, Azusa, hold her down."

Alice looked up into Azusa's reassuring face as her friend placed her hands on her arms. After sharing a brief smile Alice looked back down herself to Lushia. The woman smiled and then floated casually into the air with her attendant objects in tow. She stopped directly above Alice's chest and looked down. She raised a questioning eyebrow and Alice nodded her readiness.

With a loud cry, Lushia raised one arm and then flung it downwards in a throwing gesture. The lone jewel flashed brightly and then shot into Alice's chest like a hurtling blue meteor. The impact shoved all the breath out of her lungs and a jolt like what Alice was sure a defibrillator felt like rippled through her body. She looked down as much as she could at her chest as a feeling like she was literally on fire began to spread. The feeling spread beyond her physical body and it felt like her very being was burning. She felt a lance of that heat travel to the place where her magic dwelt and the heat everywhere seemed to jump many times to the point that she was sure she'd turn to ash.

Instead, silvery metal grew out of the jewel imbedded in her chest until there were two tiny rays sticking out along her skin; one going up toward her throat and the other going down. They had a texture pattern reminiscent of feathers. The burning continued on and a fist of it slammed into her mind and seemed to scour her brain. It was as if every tiny shred of her existence was being gone over, cleansed, and then renewed. After that renewal there came a sense of no longer being alone in her body and mind.

"_That's because you're not!_" Spoke a voice that seemed to echo within her skull. "_The bonding is complete. Now say the words."_

Alice recognized Lushia's voice and she understood on a weird new level what her…partner…was requesting. Opening eyes she didn't remember closing, she stared into Lushia's small eyes. "Witch of the Infinite Chains, I am your Mistress and partner; awaken and join with me!"

Lushia's eyes flashed almost blindingly with the same light as Alice's magic and she spread her arms wide. An invisible vertical wind seemed to rip across the small woman's clothes and hair. "Mistress of the Sturm-Ketten, I am yours as partner and device. My power is yours." The jaws of the ouroboros opened and let go of the other jewel. Then it too shot downwards and Alice felt it slither quickly up the left arm under her shirt and coil around her forearm. It felt oddly natural and comforting to have it there. Then exactly as one, she and Lushia both took and released a breath.

Lushia grinned. "_It's over,"_ she spoke inside Alice's mind. "_That wasn't really so bad was it?"_

"No, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be," Alice answered aloud and then grinned at Lushia's suddenly pouting face and a feeling of disappointment she felt radiating from the hot coal inside her mind that she knew represented Lushia. "Sorry, but talking to you inside my head would be rude to Azu." Thinking of her friend, Alice looked up and found the girl looking at her worriedly. "Something wrong?"

"Not any more," Azusa answered with small, relieved, smile. "You were screaming and squirming for so long that I was really worried about you. But Lushia kept saying that you were alright."

"Screaming?" Alice didn't remember doing that. "How long did it take?"

Azusa pointed at the window. Except for the flashes of lightning from the storm, it was almost completely dark already. That meant it had gone on for at least an hour for the sun to set below the mountains. She hadn't been aware of any of that passage of time. To her it seemed to have passed quickly.

"Well, I feel perfectly fine now," Alice said, sitting slowly uptight. "Thanks for looking out for me again. Do I look any different?"

"Hmmm, not really, except for that thing mounted in your chest of course, and that actually looks kinda cool," Azusa answered musingly. "Was she really talking to you in your head?"

"Telepathic communication is a basic skill of almost all mages," Lushia answered for her. "For Alice and I it takes even less effort to do so since there is literally no distance at all between us anymore. We are almost one being now. "

"Sounds nice," Azusa smiled pleasantly. "I think it would be interesting to try it, talking in my head I mean."

"Can I communicate with her like that?" Alice asked, pointing at Azusa.

"_Probably,_" Lushia answered telepathically. "_She is a mage too after all. You do it like this."_ Alice felt a flood of information flow into her mind. It was the exact method for communicating mentally with another mage. It contained all the instructions and math to make it work.

Following the given instructions from Lushia, she sent a tiny flow of her power to touch her mind. "_Azu?" _ She asked hesitantly.

"Ahh! Alice? Was that you?" Azusa laughed, looking positively delighted. "You really did sound like you were inside my head!" She looked at Lushia. "Can I do it too?"

"If you managed to receive Alice's sending, than I don't see why not," Lushia shrugged amusedly, still floating in mid air. "I can teach you through Alice later after things are taken care of." She stopped and frowned over at Alice. "That's with your permission of course, since you now control me and the magic we wield."

"Why would I say no?" Alice laughed. "But later sounds good. What's next on the agenda?"

This brought the widest grin yet to Lushia's tiny face. She pointed to the Alice's arm and the thing coiled under her shirt. "We activate my device components properly. Then we can get you into the proper armor for a knight. You're not complete without it and I'd absolutely die of embarrassment if the first Belkan we met saw us so deprived. Right now you're practically naked!"

Alice smiled at the excitement she both saw and felt from the tiny girl. "Lushia, how probable is it that we'd run into anyone from your world here on Earth? And what do you mean by armor?"

"Hey, you never know who we might meet!" Lushia huffed disapprovingly. "And your armor is the basic and most important protection for any knight. Being a mage can be dangerous, so having your armor up is crucial in protecting yourself. Our auto-barriers can only do so much."

"Auto-barriers?"

"I'll explain later, but for now we need to get a move on and wake me up fully."

"And how do I do that?"

Lushia grinned again. "Simple, you're the Mistress of the Storm Chains now, so just command the device portion of me that's attached to your arm to awaken and I will do so. I would advise that you stand first though."

Nodding, Alice dismounted the bed and stood across the room from Azusa with the window behind her. Lushia moved to place herself in the air between them. Alice lifted her arm before her and when her sleeve dropped she could see the jeweled tail of the serpent sitting just behind her wrist. Feeling a little embarrassed at doing this in front of Azusa, she cleared throat and spoke clearly, "Storm Chain, awaken!"

The jewel immediately burst into light as well as the one in her chest. That light rushed out in a flash and seemed to blind her to anything else. She felt an inexplicable something extended toward that place where her power resided and for the first time, she was fully aware of it. She could feel now, exactly how much power she held within and it felt like an ocean containing the sun in its depths. More extensions felt down into her power and she felt it flow into Lushia and the thing on her wrist.

"_Good!" _Lushia spoke into her mind. "_Your weapon is already done, so now we must build your armor. Give it form._"

Still enveloped in the bright blue light that bathed and covered her, she did as Lushia asked within her mind's eye. The first thing that came to mind was the combat armor she had seen soldiers wear during exercises when she had visited her father on the base. She thought of the tough dark pants, loose to allow movement, the black Kevlar vests.

"_Interesting,_" Lushia commented. "_But do you mind if I make a few adjustments to make you more like a proper knight?_"

"_Go ahead,_" Alice responded.

The vision changed. First, a tight black material clung to her torso and extended down to her mid thighs. Then something like the Kevlar she had originally imagined formed but it was more like a jacket instead of a vest. It was still black but it was edged in silver and with silvery metal embedded in various locations. A black glove formed next and then from silver rings at the base of each finger, a covering of fine chain mail extended back over her hand and forearm. Her stump was also capped in black material. At her waist formed a long skirt made of black, silver edged panels set wide apart. Then another offset layer of these panels formed that covered the gaps but didn't seem to be attached to anything. Dark, well fitting boots formed on her legs and feet. A silver ribbon snared her black hair and tied it back. Finally, from each shoulder, a cape of extremely fine and tiny chain mail rolled down to her waist and moved as it was made of cloth instead of metal.

"_Why the skirt and cape?_" Alice asked.

"_It's called a battledress,_" Lushia huffed. "_And I like the cape; it gives you a more impressive image without sacrificing mobility. And I think it looks very distinguished._"

"_If you say so,"_ Alice chortled. "_I guess I can live with this for now, even if it looks a little anachronistic._"

"_Good, now give that image to the device part of me and it will take form on your body."_

Alice found her new links with the device with hardly a thought and as she had been instructed she sent the image. Immediately the light suffusing her changed and flowed over her body like a liquid. Closing her eyes, she felt the prisoner garb dissolve to nothing while being replaced with something else. It only took an instant, but it seemed to go on forever. Then she felt the new material against her skin and she heard Azusa gasp. As the light faded away, she looked down and saw she was wearing exactly what had been in her mind.

"Well, how do I look?" she asked both of her audience members. She turned to give them a good look and the supple material felt like second skin while the coat looked protective and tough. The cape moved as if it weighed hardly anything at all. The only difference was that Lushia's gem pushed through the black material on her chest and glowed softly at the moment.

"I like it!" Azusa said excitedly and stepped forward quickly to touch her. Alice felt her hands feeling the material in various places in an extremely curious manner. When she touched the cape it caught the light and looked like Alice was wearing a cape made of mercury, the links were so small. "I think you look impressive and attractive at the same time. It's incredible!"

"That's exactly the response what I was going for!" Lushia enthused, happy that Azusa approved of the design. "And it's functional too. Alice could be fired out of a cannon right now without suffering undo harm I think."

"Whoa!" Alice took a step back. "Hold off on the cannons please. And speaking of weapons didn't you say I have one?"

"Of course! Every knight has a weapon! Just think about it and I will give it to you."

Alice tried sending a mental request, and demanded her weapon. Four glowing triangles instead of magic circles snapped open in the air near her feet, and then with a sharp, distinct rattle of metal on metal, four silvery lengths of chain as thick as her arm shot up in a blink, about four feet into the air and stopped. Defying gravity, they sat like posts of mirror shiny metal links, each was topped by a large, and sharp looking spike. The spikes were vaguely diamond shaped, but near their connection to the chain, the bottom two edges looked to have hollow slits. The chains didn't have a base; they just extended down into that spell form and disappeared.

"So my weapons are literally chains?" Alice mused aloud. "I thought I would get a spear or a sword or something."

"Yes, as our name implies, we are wielders of chains," Lushia said proudly. "And don't knock it yet, try asking me for a hand held weapon."

Frowning, Alice extended her hand out palm up, and sent that request to the device. Words floated up into her mind. "**Trident Form!"** she said, surprising herself with the firmness of the command. One of the chains snapped back instantly into the spell form. Right away another one formed near her hand as the first disappeared. A length metal shot out and she caught it instinctually. As soon as her hand closed on it, chains shot out from both ends. They stopped when the whole thing was about five feet long and each end had a pointed spike. She rotated the staff of frozen chains vertically and the top spike somehow split impossibly into the three wicked tines of a trident. Feeling that it was done, she tried to move it.

"It's a little too heavy to use with one hand," She commented absently as she tried to move the weapon through the spear and staff forms she had learned. She felt an acknowledgment from the device in her mind and the chains retracted until she held something more like a short, trident headed mace. It felt much better. "Thanks," she said and felt a happy reply from Lushia.

Lushia few an inspection-like circle around her while Azusa poked curiously at one of the still upright chains. The chain she touched didn't even budge an inch.

"Hmmm, not too bad," Lushia said when she was done. "You managed to manifest four of them. The loser guys they bonded to me in the lab when they made me could only produce one. And that staff is actually an important form since most Belkan magic, including my own, focuses on close combat for the most part."

"How do I control them?" Alice asked.

"With your mind, they are literal extensions of you and me. They will move as we will them to."

Alice focused on two of the chains and thought of them retracting back into whatever space they were coming out of. There was a moment of hesitation, but then after she firmed the thought, they snapped like the first had, back into their spell form almost too quick to even follow. Now she only had the one in her hand and the one Azusa was currently looking at.

"Azu, can you step back for a moment?" Azusa took her hand back off the chain and walked over till she was standing next to Alice.

"I think I'll be safer standing next to you while you experiment," Azusa laughed. "I don't want to be part of your learning experience, that spike is really sharp."

"Don't think too much Alice," Lushia instructed, flitting up to float next to Alice's head. "Soon you'll be able to move these without thinking about it all. Same as you would an arm or a leg. It will be come instinctual. Eventually you will react with them the same way you would move an arm to catch a ball that is thrown at you; with pure reflex."

Looking at the remaining upright chain, she thought about it moving around the room. It followed her mental commands as she thought them and soon she had the thing curling and snaking around the room. For some odd reason she found that it was impossible for the chain to get tangled. No matter how convoluted she made it move and intertwine, she could always make it straighten out again.

She tried using it like an animal's tentacle and slowly made it wrap around the legs of the bed they weren't using and then she lifted it into the air with no effort at all. She played with the chain for a long while as both Azusa and Lushia called out suggestions for her to try, some of Azusa's were clearly for her own enjoyment but Alice tried them anyway. She even had a bit of fun with it herself by using the chain to form into the cursive script of their names. No matter what she did there seemed to be an infinite number of the metal links to draw out from that new spell form in the air. She suspected that that had to have a limited range, but she just didn't know what it was yet.

"Hey Alice, what are those?" Distracted, Alice followed her friend's pointed finger to her thighs and frowned at what she saw. When the panels of her odd skirt moved she caught glimpses of something boxy attached to the outside of each thigh. They were long, rectangular, just about six inches in length and mounted vertically along her leg.

"Lushia, what are those?" Alice seconded. "Those aren't part of the design you made."

"What? Oh!" Lushia smiled and nodded in understanding. "That's an integral part of a Belkan device. Those are the loading chambers for the cartridge system. They temporarily give you a tremendous boost in power when you discharge them. We don't have any at the moment so they aren't of much use right now. When we do get our hands on some, then we can use our most powerful spells to their fullest."

"Hmmm," Alice hummed, thinking that over.

Yep!" Lushia said proudly. "But for now, can you let me have control over our magic? From what I saw when we bonded, your grasp of magic is extremely basic and full of holes. This way you can watch what I do and learn from it so that you can do it yourself."

"I guess that's alright," Alice agreed. "You probably know more about these things than I do."

"Good! Than let's get out of here! Now pay close attention to all the magic I use and how they are done."

Azusa frowned at the heavy door to their room. "Are you going to use magic to unlock the door?"

"I could," Lushia nodded. "But that's not how a proper Belkan Knight does things! Subtlety is unnecessary! Watch."

They did watch and Alice did pay close attention as Lushia brought the remaining chain around until it was pointing straight at the door. Alice marveled at the casualness of the movement until she remembered that the chain was quite literally, a part of Luhsia's body. She did gape however when a flood of information and equations filled her mind along with the form for a spell. A glowing blue triangular magic form appeared, centered on the point of the chain's spike and then a glowing band containing more sigils appeared around it and spun at a fairly high rate. From that circular band, a translucent blue sphere formed to encase the spike head inside. Alice could feel her magic drawing off to power the spell.

"That," Lushia said in an instruction-like manner, "Is a very basic barrier. They are essential to learn for both offense and defense. Observe."

Lushia nodded her head once. From the hollow slits at the base of the chain spike, flame shot out like a rocket motor and the chain shot with an absurd amount of velocity at the door. When the barrier, almost as wide as the door itself, hit the steel portal, it tore from the wall as if it was made of paper. Alice cringed slightly at the loud crunching noise that came when the door was slammed into the wall opposite their room.

Lushia grinned again. "Now that, is how you break out of a prison!" The chain retracted until it floated attendance as just the spike at Alice's right shoulder. "Now let's see to those kids so we can get to the main event!"

Alice walked to the doorway and peaked around outside in the hall. She was sure the noise Lushia had just made would have drawn someone, but maybe it had been covered up by the booming thunder coming from outside the building. Stepping out, with Lushia floating opposite the chain at her left shoulder and Azusa behind, she tried to walk quietly down the hall toward where she thought the rooms they'd seen the other girls coming out of were.

When they got there the halls were still eerily empty and quiet. She knew there were supposed to be guards about the place, but they saw none. They approached the first door and she noticed that someone had written names on a card attached to the room number plaque. This room, if it was right, contained four girls.

"You're up," Alice smiled at Lushia.

"Another door opener coming up!" This time Lushia just fired the spike without the barrier at the lock and it punched straight through. Alice noted that Luhsia had been careful to make sure the depth of penetration was just barely through the door. That was a good thing since they didn't want to accidentally spear any of the girls they were trying to rescue.

With Azusa's help she yanked the door open to find four young girls, cowering for their lives in the corner of the room. They looked at Alice and her friends with terror on their faces. Then one girl, maybe six years old or so frowned and pointed. "You Awice?!" She said with an extremely heavy accent. Alice guessed that the girl must not speak very much English. The other girls, after this exclamation frowned at them more calmly.

"Yes, I'm Alice," she said. "Azusa is here too." Azusa stepped into room and tried to smile reassuringly. It seemed to work because the girls stepped away from the corner and approached cautiously. When they spoke, none appeared to know English at all so she looked to the girl that had spoken. "We are here to free you." She motioned toward the door. "To leave here."

The girl frowned hard, apparently trying to understand her words. Then after a moment she seemed to get it because she grinned and jabbered something to the other girls. One of those obviously understood because she nodded excitedly and then threw herself at Azusa and hugged her.

"You're so popular!" Alice laughed.

"I like kids and they seem to like me too," Azu responded. "So what now?"

"I have a suggestion," Lushia said raising a tiny arm. Her voice drew the attention of the girls and they all pointed and exclaimed about the tiny woman. Alice could well guess what they were asking, but she had no way of answering them except through the one girl with a little English.

"What's your idea?" Alice asked.

"This!" Lushia waved a hand and Alice blinked at what she saw in another display screen that appeared. Floating in a black void was what looked like a spaceship from a sci-fi movie. "Remember what I said about an organization that's been getting involved in this recent business?" She and Azu both nodded. "They have multiple ships in orbit and they almost certainly have the capacity and capability to find the parents of the children and return them."

"So this group is benevolent?" Alice asked.

"So far," Lushia nodded. "From what I have observed, they appear to be some kind of inter-dimensional police or something. I haven't spoken with them directly to see what they are exactly. But so far they have only done good things here. They have intervened during a number of dangerous magical incidents that have occurred. They have also been the ones keeping the Hirtolians at bay up till now. Sending the children into their safekeeping would be for the best."

"If you really think so then lets do it," Alice agreed.

Under Lushia's instructions they cleared the beds in the room to one side and had the girls stand together in the center of the room. Azusa stood in the doorway and Alice took her place with Lushia in front of the kids.

"Alrighty," Lushia said, rubbing her hands together. "I haven't done this in a very long while, but it shouldn't be a problem. Alice, you're going to feel a much greater drain on your magic this time. You haven't channeled anything of this magnitude before so you may feel dizzy or weak for a short time afterward. This is to be expected when you force yourself to work greater magics than is the norm."

"I'm ready," Alice answered.

"Good, now make sure to stay still." Lushia cast out her hand toward the girls and beneath their feet, a very large triangular spell form appeared and flared brightly. From each of the circles at the corners, one of her chains shot up like a spike into the air. Alice felt Lushia reach deeply into her magic and the amount she channeled out was staggering in comparison to any of the spells Alice had ever worked before. Lushia slowly raised her arm above her head. Alice could feel the complexity of the spell and she observed it with fascination. "Dimensional transfer set up," Lushia intoned ominously and then when the power reached a quivering crescendo she snapped her fingers. "Go!"

Dark blue light rose in a blinding triangular shaft and when it vanished, the girls were gone as if they'd never been. As Lushia had warned, her vision blurred for a second and her balance felt awkward. She felt Azu's hands on her shoulders and she let her friend hold her still until her brain caught back up and she was alright to stand.

"Thanks," Alice smiled to Azusa and then to Lushia. "Now we just need to do the same with the rest of them."

Lushia nodded. "But I think we should do it in larger groups from now on. If we teleport fifty separate groups this way you'll end up unconscious. Did you catch how that spell worked?"

"Yeah, it looked complicated, but I think I understood it. A couple more repetitions and I should be able remember it."

"Good! Now let's get a move on!"

******

Captain Enshiro was quite tired when he entered the bridge and sat into his chair. The past week had given him more work and longer hours than he had been used to dealing with. Survey work was supposed to be easy, but lately things were far from that ideal. So many things kept happening these days that he'd put off sleep for almost two days now and after this shift he would finally be getting some shut eye.

He looked over the rest of the bridge crew and he saw equal wear on their features. The whole crew had been working hard. They were maintaining the whole searcher and sensor net for all the TSA forces in the area because of their ship's enhanced capability for such things and no one wanted to flub things when there were some very important people down on the planet.

That brought him to the other reason he was tired. He'd accepted Commander Takamatchi's request to give temporary protective shelter to her family and to Admiral Chrono's, but he'd had no idea what he was getting into. He didn't have any family of his own so the arrival of some extremely energetic people onto his vessel had been a shock.

He saw the resemblance to the commander immediately and their excited curiosity at being aboard his ship had been visible. But the worst was the little girl, Vivio. The commander's spirited daughter seemed to be everywhere, asking curious questions and looking at things. Keeping tabs on the child was turning into a full time job.

"Captain!"

He heard the alarm in his tactical officer's voice and snapped out of his mental review. Almost as soon as his head rose, Tawno had flipped open a screen in front of him.

"Sir, we have an incoming teleport from the planet's surface. The location is far eastern Russian, Kamchatka peninsula. It's definitely not TSA in origin. In fact, CIC just came back and identified the magic type as being very old Belkan."

"Seal the teleporting room hard, but allow the transfer," he ordered quickly.

"Aye, raising the barriers and shields now. " Tawno responded.

All teleports to the ship were grabbed by the ship's systems and were then forced to exit in the teleport room. That room could be sealed shut with many layers of shields and barriers. It was rated to contain even the most powerful spells that could be unleashed by a SSS mage.

"Sir, travelers arriving." Enshiro opened a searcher window to view the arrival. He saw the characteristic triangle of a Belkan spell form appear on the floor and then after flash, four people appeared and stumbled to the ground. Then they started jabbering and yelling at each other excitedly. Enshiro was baffled by what he saw. Why had children teleported onto his ship?

"Sir! I'm picking up another one! And it's a much bigger group this time!"

Again he watched as a group of almost twenty little girls appeared in the teleporting room. He snapped his head toward his communications officer. "Get me the Admiral, now!"

******

Alice felt sweat rolling down her face. The second, much larger group, made up of girls from five rooms had been much more draining than the first one. It had also taken longer to do, so she'd had a much better look at the spell. Then another group of twenty had tired her out even more. Now they were down to the last two rooms.

The four girls from the first room were now following her to the door of the second one. Now Alice was the one opening the doors. She had requested to do so in order to get some practice at manipulating her device. They really did feel like extensions of her body and she found the chains to be easy to use. She punched out the last lock to the room with two names next to it and yanked it open with a flick of the chain.

When they walked inside, it contained only one frightened little girl. She was wrapped in the sheets of her bed and starring at them as if she'd expected some kind of monster to be entering the room. No matter what they did the girls initially reacted this way in every room. She didn't really blame them though; it had to be shocking to watch your door being ripped open.

"Where's the other girl?" Alice asked.

The girl definitely recognized her because she smiled immediately. "You here, save us?" She asked brokenly. "Juden take Ashley away. He look scary face."

Alice felt a chill run through her. Juden had Ashley? That couldn't be good at all. She beckoned to the girl and when she came out of the room she receive a joyful group hug from the others that had already been freed and were being watched and chivied along by Azusa who looked like her old kindergarten teacher with all the younger girls gathered around her like they were.

"Azusa, can you stay here with the girls? I need to go down to the labs. Apparently Juden took Ashley and that's the only place he would take her."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Azu asked worriedly.

"It'll be fine," Lushia assured her. "Even if the guy is armed, I doubt he has anything that could harm us. Normal small arms are almost useless against a knight with her armor up."

"Well…alright, but please hurry back."

Alice nodded and then she was on her way. When they reached the research area of the building they went from room to room, looking inside to see if anyone was there. All were completely empty of people. Finally they came to a room that Alice had never been inside of. The door wasn't locked so she just opened it and went inside only to stop dead two steps in.

Ashley and Juden were indeed in the room. And the former was strapped to a hospital bed while Juden looked up in surprise from where he was drawing a liquid from a vial into a syringe. He took one look at her and his face went white.

"A-Alice, w-why are you wearing that? And that thing at your shoulder!"

"Alice!" Ashley screamed happily.

"Hey Ashley," Alice couldn't help but smile at the girl. "I came here to get you because you weren't in your room. We're getting you out of here." She stopped and grinned at Juden. "Sorry, but we are leaving now. You can go play psycho doctor on someone else."

"You can't leave!" Juden roared. "I ha-"

Alice didn't feel like listening to Juden rant, so she made one of her chains appear behind the man and brought its tip to the back of Juden's neck. There, after a mental instruction from Lushia, she used one of the reasons her device was called the storm chains. A jolt of electricity sizzled down the metal and made a popping sound as it discharged into Juden and knocked him out flat.

Before he'd even hit the ground Alice was already using the sharp bladed edge of her chain spike to cut Ashley loose. The girl just watched in amused amazement.

"What is that Alice?! And that little person too!"

"Heh, you remember how you said you didn't believe that magic was real?" Ashley nodded emphatically. "Well, you are a bit wrong. These are magic. And this woman with me is why I can do it. Think of her as a sort of magic computer."

"AI, thank you very much," Lushia huffed. "Can we go now?"

"Haha! She's so cute!" Ashley enthused as she climbed off the bed.

Alice was kind of pleasantly surprised when the girl immediately hugged her. Ashley chattered excitedly the whole way back to Azusa and the others. Once there Alice once again grouped the girls together to be transported out. Ashley pouted and complained when she realized Alice wouldn't be going with them but Lushia completed the spell before the girl could get out of the area of effect.

When the light of the teleport spell faded for the last time, Alice leaned against a wall to rest herself. A smiling Azusa sidled up next to her and Lushia somehow sat on Alice's shoulder without sinking through it. For a short while they just stood there and let Alice rest for a bit. When Alice felt a little less drained, she turned her head to look at her tiny partner. "So what's next?"

"We get out of here and kick the Hirtolians off this planet!" Lushia answered. "Those are the last standing orders I was given by my last master."

"Ok, where—" Alice was cut off as the whole building shook and a roar greater than any thunder came from outside somewhere. Almost stumbling, Alice braced herself with the wall. "What on earth was that?"

"That," Lushia answered. "Is the enemy."

* * *

Review Response:

Sorry it was not Rein. She and Hayate may make an appearance later.

Tombadgerlock: sorry about that, I forgot all about Shamal's ability. I was thinking it was part of the BoD at the time when I was writing that chapter.

Next Chapter: First Battle.


	5. Fight

Boom after thunderous, nerve tingling boom rocked the night. It put to shame anything the storm outside had produced so far and Alice felt more than a little nervous as she, Azusa and Lushia climbed up a dimly lit and heavily cracked stairwell that was in dire need of a good cleaning. Unlike the rest of the facility, it seemed that Judan hadn't given much attention to the upper unused portions of the building they had been using for the experimentations with magic. This part looked sad and dingy.

Alice was feeling a lot better now after having rested a bit, but she could still feel a little of the strain from teleporting the girls. Lushia said that she had more than enough raw power to do the spell a couple dozen times, but her body and mind just weren't up to channeling that kind of energy yet. The comparison Lushia had made was that it was like trying to run five miles at a dead sprint without stretching. Theoretically you might be able to pull it off but your body would pay for it. Magic it seemed was the same. She would have to slowly work on building up her ability to work with it. Later down the road she would be able to manage things without being affected this much.

"Are you sure what we want is up here?" Alice asked as she continued upwards.

"Yeah, I'm very sure," Alice heard the humor in Azu's voice. It was her suggestion that had brought them here. Alice had asked this question more than once already.

After two more flights they came to the top landing which contained only a single solid looking door painted a garish red that was flaking badly. A warning of some kind in Russian sat above it on the wall. It was lit by a lone, dirty looking bulb that sat in protective cage that looked to have taken a heavy blow on one side. It's vaguely orange light made Alice feel a bit creeped out. It was like a setting in a horror movie.

"Is this it?" Alice asked.

"Yep, definitely," Azusa confirmed in a pleased tone. "I know this is the roof access."

They had debated for a short while between the three of them as to the best and safest way to get out of the building while avoiding the heaviest concentrations of soldiers and Azusa had surprised them. She said that she knew of a roof access that she had never even seen in person before. When she and Lushia had asked how she knew Azu just shrugged and said she knew where every room and corridor was. Lushia explained it was just a natural part of Azusa's sensory gifts. From what Alice could understand of it, Azusa's magic leaked out of her constantly and flowed into the world around her. This was how Azusa knew of things she couldn't directly observe.

The door was locked of course when Alice tried to shove it open, but it easily broke open with a quick use of a chain spike. When she pulled the door inward Alice stepped back a step out of reflex as the formally muffled storm was suddenly right in her face. A strong wind blew in thick, heavy droplets that landed with hard wet smacks on the floor. The loud susurration of the rain outside was everything for a long few seconds. Then the type-writer chatter of a semi-auto firearm ripped through the night, a jarring intrusion into the peaceful rain sounds and the background rumble of thunder.

It was followed by other sounds of gunfire and the shouting of men. Alice could hear at least five different types weapons chattering away. Then there came an answer to the gunfire. It was a deep, whump-whump sound that she could almost feel in her chest. After one such discharge, a stray shot zipped up into the air and her eyes followed the small red projectile for a second.

Alice took a few steps out into the cold rain and looked around her as Azusa waited under the cover of the stairwell. Now that she wasn't in a stretcher like before she had a good, if very dark, view of the town. The building she stood on and the connected administration one were the tallest buildings on a main thoroughfare of some kind that ran from north to south. She could see that the entire town was set into a deep and narrow mountain valley and that the buildings ran right up against the rising peaks on three sides. In the distance to the north side she saw the lift towers Azu had mentioned that denoted the mine shafts. On the south side of town was the largish lake along which she could faintly make out a road on its east bank. In the stormy night the enormous vessels sitting in the water looked like derelicts rotting away. The occasion flash of lightning gave them a decrepit appearance.

The town itself wasn't especially large either. It was a mostly uneducated guess, but Alice didn't think more than ten thousand people could have lived here when it was actively populated. Most of the buildings nearby that she could see in detail through the downpour looked like ghosts of their past selves. They were mostly grey, depressing structures in an incredible state of crumbling disrepair. It looked as if nature had made very good headway at reclaiming this place. There were even places where she saw the jagged remnants of a structure that had collapsed partially. Even the roof she stood on really needed to have its tarpaper replaced and re-leveled. The whole east side which ran along the rise to the mountain was one huge puddle.

She walked slowly to the roof edge on the side from which she had heard the gunfire, and knelt carefully at the raised wall there that ran along the perimeter. Her armor insulated her from the cold and wet and even from the random debris on the roof as she slowly leaned forward. With a mental command it also gave her soft warmth to further keep the weather from affecting her body.

She looked again out over the town and she could see many more flashes from guns and magic coming up from the streets and from the gaping mouths of empty windows as the two sides fought. One particular building that was several stories tall and about three miles away or so to the west seemed to ripple with gunfire all along its top floors. Alice thought it must be some kind of holdout where they were using the upper floors to kill those who approached. Juden had mentioned that the whole town was being used for their needs, so it wasn't out of the question that she was looking at another important lab of some kind.

She peeked over the edge of the building and her eyes widened in surprise. Below was the front entrance they had come through when they arrived and someone had dragged several derelict cars in a semi-circle to provide cover for almost thirty heavily armed men. All wore the oddly wired armor she had seen on the day of her capture. Inside the circle she saw that a few men had already taken minor injuries and were leaning against the wall as one of their fellows wrapped bandages on burned looking flesh. Looking further along the wall she saw another, much larger group guarding the entrance to the command building next door.

A sudden deafening whoomph exploded through the night and snapped her attention back to the town. A bulging blast of flame and smoke, bright in the dark of the storm, ripped through a three story building far away to her right and threw chunks of material into the air and made a small indentation appear temporarily in the clouds above. Even as the initial explosion died out she saw that the fire had caught on something and the building was quickly becoming an inferno. She had no idea which side had done that, but it didn't matter. Either way they were enemies.

Something nearby gave a sharp whistling sound and as she looked back downwards to the makeshift barricade she saw that four men dressed in the Temple armor and double-spiked helmets she'd seen on the screen earlier had come around the corner of a nearby street intersecting the one their building sat on and their leader was pointing something at the defenders below which had a snarling cascade of energy flowing to its tip.

The Imperial soldiers also saw the threat coming and a sergeant of some kind shouted men into responding with alacrity. Almost as one, half the men turned, sighted down their weapons and cut loose with small bursts from their obviously earth-built assault rifles. The Temple men raised a red barrier of some kind and the bullets did nothing. The Temple squad leader's weapon crackled and Alice watched in stunned fascination as a larger packet of energy than she'd seen yet hissed quickly through the rain and punched into one of the barricade cars. With the shriek of rending metal it was blown back and into the men behind it who cried out in surprised pain and shock.

Someone below had a heavier weapon to hand and fired an rpg that hissed through the air. That blew the temple barrier into shreds of vanishing light and the men behind it were rapidly cut down in the now unhindered hail of gunfire until they lay still on the soaked street. Alice knew they were dead. There was far too much blood darkening the street for them to have survived that. Feeling a bit numb, Alice turned around and sat down against the wall. Lushia slipped off of her shoulder and floated in front of her face.

"So that's what war looks like," Alice mumbled softly.

"Aye," Lushia agreed seriously. "And not even a very terrible one by comparison to most. And this is only one small battle. The truly terrible ones, those between mages of power, would be tearing this place apart."

Alice stood again and quickly crossed back to Azu inside the stairwell.

"Well?" Azusa asked in concern.

"Lushia was right," Alice told her. "Those temple guys are attacking and it looks like the Admiral's men are fighting back as best they can. But they look like they're scattered all around the town."

Azusa nodded. "I can feel them. They're all over the place."

"The temple must have struck before the soldiers here could gather together," Lushia said. "That's why there's no look of cohesion or planning. The Temple is just running around trying to kill everyone on the Admiral's side who were probably in the middle of other duties when the attack came. Azusa, can you feel how many there are?"

Azu closed her eyes and her face tightened in concentration. "I...I think there are at least a couple thousand per side. I can feel an odd sensation from about two thousand people. They seem to spark brightly sometimes."

"Those are probably the Temple men," Lushia mused aloud. "That has to be their magic your feeling. Alice did you notice the weapons they were carrying?"

"Those twin-bladed sword things?"

"Yes," Lushia nodded. "What they are carrying is a kind of pseudo-device. It is how they are wielding any kind of magic at all. It can only perform a few specific spells and only with the power the wielder can generate."

"You know what they are?" Alice asked in surprise.

"Yes, they used them the last time they tried to invade Earth. There is a true intelligent device on the ship that the Belkans used to get to Hirtolia. Its only ability is to create and empower these fragment devices for front-line soldiers to carry. Its normal limit is supposed to be only five-hundred men. It seems they figured some things out."

"What did they figure out?" Alice asked.

"Remember how I said they stole a part of my master's ship that he had brought down to use?" Alice nodded that she did. "It was a magical power generator. Not one of the main ones that he used when he created the seal on this world, but still powerful on its own. I can feel the traces of it when those men fire off those spells. They used it to boost that device and enabled it to create more of these fakes."

"So, is that good or bad?" Alice asked, trying to see where this was going.

"Both," Lushia answered at once. "It's bad because it gives them armor like we have and magical abilities they wouldn't normally be able to use. That means they'll make us waste energy taking them out. It's a good thing because it also heavily limits their attacks for the most part. Unlike you and me, they can't create new spells or modify existing ones. Their tactical flexibility will be limited."

"Okay, but I don't see how I'm going to defeat several thousand men, including other mages despite what you say. I still just one girl," Alice said. "And an inexperienced one if I'm being truthful."

Lushia grinned and raised a pointed finger toward Alice's face, "Ahh, but you don't really have to do that."

"Huh?" Alice felt confused. "I thought you said you had to complete your last standing order which was to defeat and remove the Hirtolians from earth?"

"It is," Lushia confirmed with a playful smirk. "But it doesn't state anywhere in that command that we have to do it alone. In fact there is no mention of methods at all other than my regaining a master."

"Then what are we going to do?"

"Sow confusion where possible and disable as many enemy soldiers as we can," Lushia said, still smiling. "That organization we sent the girls to will already be responding to this event like they have all the others. We just have to assist them and confuse the enemy before they get here. They have the manpower and magic to do things on a larger scale than us. I'm not expecting you to be a one girl army just yet. That's a ways in the future for us."

Alice eyed Lushia speculatively. She couldn't tell if Lushia was joking about the last part or not. From the feeling coming through the link she thought Lushia must be at least half serious. "Well, if that's the plan then we may as well get started." She frowned at Azusa. "Azu, shouldn't I send you to that ship with the girls? It'll be a lot safer."

"No!" Azu stepped forward quickly and hugged her remaining arm. "Don't send me away! I'd much rather stay with you. Who's going to help you when you get in trouble again?"

Alice snorted a laugh at that. "You're sure something is going to happen to me?"

"Of course!" Azu smiled brightly. "How many times have I had to take care of you somehow since we met? It's been less than a week but I still think you'll need me before too long."

"Alice, you can wrap her in a barrier for protection," Lushia said, butting in. "Just combine it with a few reactive shields and she'll be safe enough. It's too bad she doesn't have her own device though, because then she'd have her own armor and spells to defend herself with."

"Alright," Alice said resignedly, even though she still didn't like the idea of her friend getting in harms way. She brought to mind the barrier spell and with help from Lushia she formed it into a coating that was like a faintly glowing skein over her friend's body. Then, again under Lushia direction, she made small glowing triangular spell forms all over the air around Azusa. She didn't know the real difference between a barrier and a shield yet, but the latter felt stronger. The shields she made were conditional and would only activate when an attack actually came at her friend. When she was done they slowly faded into invisibility.

"Awww," Azu smiled. "It was kind of pretty having all that hanging around me."

"Sure," Lushia laughed. "But by glowing like that you would be the first thing any enemy saw."

"So what's the plan Lushia," Alice asked, starting to feel a little excited. She wouldn't admit it to anyone, but she felt oddly thrilled about what she would be doing shortly.

"We are going to pick off lone squads of temple soldiers and spread general havoc among them where we can." Lushia began. "Belkan knights are the vanguard of any battle and we lead all assaults. What we need to do is to drive this idea home to this enemy. Hirtolians have always been superstitious. It's how they were swayed in the first place. If they fear us and think us as an unstoppable force, they won't be able to fight well when the reinforcements arrive. We can not show any fear or restraint ourselves while we do this. I'm not saying you have to kill your foes, but you can't hesitate to strike when you see them and when you do, you strike hard."

"So…we are kind of like a shock trooper," Alice said slowly. "We have to jump straight into a fight and not let up to keep the enemy from gaining a firm footing right? If we slow down they'll swamp us with their larger numbers. My father has spoken of that before I think."

"That's the general I idea, yes. About what I would expect from someone not truly trained to fight like this. We don't really have the power to engage in straight, head on attacks right now, so we'll have to improvise," Lushia nodded approvingly. "It's too bad I don't have time to teach you to fly right now. Then we could really be frightening."

"We can fly!" Alice goggled. "You gotta show me that when this is over!"

Lushia laughed, "Sure, but the battle first, then flying lessons. If you tried now you'd just slam into a building or something. Let's go. It shouldn't be hard to find some more temple soldiers to pick on."

Alice nodded and stepped back out into the rain. Alice noted that when Azusa stepped out too, her barrier kept the girl dry as a side effect. She noted that for later and approached the edge of the building that ran next to the neighboring one on the south side. She thought that taking the high road would be less likely to result in unplanned encounters with the enemy. In her mind she felt Lushia's agreement with her plan. Since she couldn't fly she came up with an alternative.

She raised her arms to call her chains but Lushia squawked disapprovingly. "Alice, don't get into the habit of broadcasting your attacks or spells. Using your arms gives the enemy an indication of what you intend. If you have to, cross your arms or do something else with them. I know of one mage I saw in the past who carried a small hand puzzle that he fiddles with to keep his hands busy. Do anything else, but don't broadcast your intentions."

Alice nodded at the chastisement and dropped her arms as Lushia retook her shoulder perch. With a thought, two of her chains shot out of the darkness in front of them and coiled around her and Azu's bodies and then tightened snuggly. Under her direction it quickly lifted them down to the rooftop of the next building. Once she they were set down she jogged across to the other side. Azu got the idea quickly and soon Alice got them into a good rhythm as they went from roof to roof via her chains. Luckily the town's buildings mostly consisted of flat roofs. She kept them to a slow pace that wouldn't tire Azusa out too quickly, but they managed to cover a fair distance in a very short amount of time.

"Azu," Alice asked as she carried them through the air in a transfer from one building to another. "Can you feel any groups like Lushia described nearby? Small groups or loners"

Azu frowned for a second. "Yes, I can feel a number of them like that. I think they are all moving in small groups of four or multiples of that number. If we take the first right at the next cross street ahead there's a group straddling the road in twos."

"Gotcha!" Alice acknowledged and altered their course through the rain and thunder when they got to the indicated street. Crossing over that street made her feel very exposed but there wasn't another way to get across. As they traveled down the new line of buildings and headed north she kept her eyes on the road below. On the third building she saw what Azusa had felt. Four men in the armor of Temple soldiers were walking slowly down the road with two on each side. They walked in a slow, hunting manner as if they knew of prey ahead.

"Good," Lushia whispered quietly near her ear. "This group will make an excellent trial run; they don't have any reinforcements in sight. What you need to do is to break their armor and then render them unconscious or at the very least bind them." Alice felt the stream of information on the spell Lushia was referencing flow through her mind. From what she could understand, it would hold someone quit well and especially so if their defenses were down. "Use everything you have. Spells, hand-to-hand, the chains; everything can be used against your foes so don't ever hesitate to use them. I'm protecting and helping you so it shouldn't be too difficult to do this successfully."

"I can fight them with the martial arts I learned?" Alice asked dubiously. "Won't their armor easily withstand me punching them or whatever?"

"That won't be a problem," Lushia laughed softly. "I'm enhancing your physical attributes as well as your magic. Try it out in a fight and you'll understand. I think you'll be impressed. Now let me tell you about an attack spell."

******

Azusa crouched on the damp, gravel coated rooftop and watched calmly as Lushia and Alice talked and planned. She felt truly amazed by her new friend. In a week's time Alice had been attacked, abducted, seriously injured, lost an arm and was then experimented upon. And throughout that she had always somehow remained positive or at the very least, able to move forward. Azusa had found herself strengthened and motivated by this when she knew she would have given up and conceded failure on her own..

When she had first been captured, she had been terrified and alone in that stark cell aboard the ship. Before that, she had never been truly alone before. There had always been someone nearby to draw strength and protection from, be it family or servants. But in that cell she had no one to rely upon. She hadn't had any illusions about the possible outcomes her captures had planned. She had resigned herself to the worst. But then they'd opened that steel hatch and threw Alice roughly onto the deck.

She had been a bleeding, pummeled wreck of a human being when she arrived. Azusa had done the best she could with the provided bandages to help the unknown girl she had found herself rooming with. The only things she knew about comforting people was her experience with her younger sisters so she had tried to treat Alice similarly. To her surprise she had found strength and peace in helping Alice and tending to her wounds. There was just something deeply calming when she helped Alice in different ways. She had even started singing those stupid lullabies she used to sing to her sisters when they were younger as Alice had slept on her lap. She had also been heartily embarrassed when Alice mentioned that she had actually heard those songs. Despite Alice's laughing compliments about them, Azusa was sure she had been horribly off key, but it had been nice to know that her efforts had been appreciated.

But then Alice, even when she had lost her arm, just stood right up and moved forward. Her confident presence had been very comforting when Juden had started in on the experiments. She had been a bit unnerved that what she could do was magic at first, but seeing Alice's pride in her own abilities made her rethink that a bit. And then, as they shared a bed and comforted each other after Juden's poking and prodding, Azusa knew that this person had the potential to be greatest friend she would probably ever know.

Not that she had ever had very many friends before now of course. Her father had always been strict with who her and her sisters' kept company with. She had simply considered her siblings her friends and a few select people from her school that her father approved of. Now that she had made a real friend she didn't want to let her go, ever. Alice was far too important to surrender easily. She wanted to get to know Alice even more, especially when they didn't have to fear for their lives. When this was all over she wanted to live her life alongside Alice and truly get to know her friend.

She didn't think Alice knew it yet, but her friend just exuded strength and stability to those around her. Those girls in the auditorium had picked up on it and Azusa hadn't really been very surprised when Ashley had placed herself next to her Alice. Alice just had that constant look on her face of determination and her eyes always seemed to gleam with inner intelligence and warmth. And from their conversations at night, Azusa knew that her friend's mind never really stopped moving, she was always thinking about things and figuring stuff out. But she cared to; Azusa had seen the delight on Alice's face when those girls had gathered around them and when she had gotten all the girls to freedom.

And now she saw yet another side of Alice. Alice had told her all about what had happened when she was captured and Azusa had been both shocked and amazed. She would never have had thought in a hundred years that she could have fought back against her own attackers. She had been far too terrified. But Alice had done so almost without thinking about it. It may have been a foolish decision at the time, but it still showed that Alice wasn't someone who let fear govern her. Even now she was willingly going along with Lushia to fight against these strangers.

Azusa thought Lushia's choice of Alice to be her new master had been a good one. Even now they looked as if they'd been partners for much longer than just a couple hours. There wasn't a trace of hesitancy in either of them. Alice stood there in her armor like a proud valkyrie and Azusa felt strengthened again by the confidant set of Alice's shoulders and the way she listened intently to Lushia's careful instructions. It looked like she fought battles like this everyday and this was simply another briefing session. And there was something else too. Alice was incredibly excited.

Azusa could see it in her friend's face and eyes especially. They seemed to almost glow with eagerness and energy. She had seen some of the men who served her father, those that obviously reveled in moments of violence and cruelty, but this was different. She was sure Alice was one of those who liked to fight and enjoyed moments of contest or tests of their limits. She had heard the pride in Alice's voice whenever she had mentioned her martial arts training and Alice had even grown very animated during an explanatory retelling of a particularly exciting sparring match. And the fact that Alice had lost that match was also very telling. Alice had simply been happy that she had done her best and learned from it.

"Azu?"

"Huh?" she looked up from her internal musing and saw that Alice and Lushia were both looking at her with small, friendly smiles on their faces. Alice also had that slight crinkle in the corners of her eyes that said she was amused by something.

"Nothing much, I just wanted to make sure you were ready too," Alice answered. "We're going to start here in a moment."

"I'm ready," Azusa returned, smiling as well. "I'll just keep my head down until you're done here and I'll just concentrate on seeing if anyone else is coming while you're busy. We don't want them sneaking upon us, right?"

"Thanks, Azu," Alice grinned appreciatively. She turned her head to Lushia who was still perched on her left shoulder. "It's time to get this done." Lushia nodded eagerly and they both walked back to the street-side edge of the roof. For a second Azusa took in the silhouetted form of her friend as she watched her prey on the street below and felt calmed again. Alice just looked so imposing in that brief moment with her cape rippling in the storm driven wind along with her dark black hair. She understood then what Lushia meant when she talked about Knights having the right look.

Then she felt it deep in her chest. She recognized the feel of Alice's magic. It was a hot and exciting feeling that seemed to rage like the storm around them. Alice's face calmed to stillness and in an instant, half a dozen dark blue triangular magic things appeared in the air. Alice called them spell forms she thought. She felt the magic gathering at those points until there was a sense of completion and Alice spoke clearly and calmly.

"**Sapphire bombs…Release!"**

******

Acolyte Samson walked calmly through the stormy night. To his left was the heavily cracked and weather worn pavement of the street and then the other two men of his team of four. As they patrolled through the strange, deserted alien town, they kept close to the buildings so that they didn't make east targets of themselves. It also kept good cover close buy if they came upon the traitors.

His Sword weighed comfortably in his right hand and the pommel felt familiar and right to his fingers. Some men claimed they felt a presence in their weapons, but Samson didn't care about that stuff. He was just happy to know that the blade would serve him well. He had been proud on the day that he'd been brought into the inner chambers of the Temple to receive it. Even now he could remember the approving smiles from two of the Vicars as they directed the Holy Reliquary to bless him with a Gods blessed Sword.

Then he had proven himself to the Inquisition and now, at not even nineteen years old, he had been given his own team. This was his first mission with them and he was determined to prove that the four of them were worthy of more. They had trained hard for a day like today and he observed the careful movements of the other three with silent approval. Not event the strangeness of this place was affecting their professionalism as soldiers.

The bone chilling rain from the storm was more than a bit annoying, but he was thankful for it when he saw the reflection of a person on a roof in a puddle that sat in a particularly impressive pothole. It was that glimmer of a spell being worked that caught his eye first and his mouth was already speaking before his mind caught up.

"Cover!"

His shouted command cut through the sound of the rain and his men reacted instantly. They dove for stairways, rusting vehicles, and other solid structures just in time as a strong, clearly female voice spoke.

"**Sapphire bombs…Release!"**

Just as he was recovering from his own dive behind the cement mount for a light post, he saw the effect of the spell as it took form. Several brightly glowing shards of blue, each at least as long as his arm, punched through the night and blasted their way into the three story building that lay directly in front of this men on his side of the street. The projectiles punctured the building, all up its face, and then there came a bright flash of dark blue light from each of the gaping wounds.

Before his eyes could recover from the light, the ground shook as explosions ripped out of the struck building. The concussions tore by him and he grunted as he was forced to cover his face against it. Then a greater rumbling reverberated through his prone form as the entire front façade of the building collapsed into the street, burying it in rubble. Had it not been raining the cloud of dust would have been blinding, but as it was, the water cleared it away quickly to reveal an impressive amount of damage.

Then he heard the surprised shout of one of the men across the street and he realized his folly. The building strike had been a distraction and the enemy was using it to attack his men. As he turned to face the threat, he saw one man hacking at something long and silvery that was attacking the other one by coiling around his body. He saw something crackled like miniature lightening and the attacked man collapsed unconscious to the wet ground. As soon as she slumped limply, the attacking weapon vanished.

It was too dark to see clearly but it looked like something metallic and silvery again flashed in from multiple directions at once and then the other man also fell and lay still. He noticed that both of their armor had failed and they lay exposed. In all it had taken less then a couple minutes.

"Sir, what do we do," Whispered his last man as he comes up behind Samson. "She's up on the roof across from us"

"We take her out," Samson hissed in anger. He saw movement on the roof from where the first attack had come, so both he and his remaining man, Denson, each sent a blast of magic up at it. The angry red magic bolts shot at their target, but before they had even gotten halfway there something whipped through the rain and knocked them off course. Instead of striking the barely visibly figure, they veered up into the angry sky.

"Block!"

As he shouted, both he and Denson interposed their Swords with training perfect precision as two more of whatever was attacking struck out at them from afar. When it struck his blades, he saw that it was a thick length of chain with a heavily spiked head. He grunted under the power of the impact but he managed to deflect the attack to the left so he only felt a part of the power meant for him. Denson wasn't as lucky.

Samson watched in stunned horror as his last man caught the incoming attack straight on. His blade shattered into a thousand pieces, and with it went his armor. Before he or Denson could react the chains had already disappeared and that voice spoke again.

"**Leech Line."**

A triangular spell form snapped open beneath Denson's feet and a dozen glowing blue cables of magic shot up like vines and coiled around his every limb. Samson watched the man's eyes roll up into his head before he too fell to the ground with a dull thump.

In that moment Samson knew he didn't have a chance against this unknown enemy. His team had been taken out in minutes and he had nothing which could harm his foe. Painful and humiliating as it was, he knew his duty. He hefted his Sword into a carrying position and ran back in the direction they had come. The bishops had to know of this enemy and he was the only one left that could do it.

Not even ten running strides from his hiding place, he saw another of those blue shards punch into the cover he'd been standing behind just a moment before. Knowing what was coming next he activated his Sword's shield spell just in time as the blast from the enemy spell erupted behind him as he continued to retreat. This close to explosion his shield failed in an instant and collapsed into nothingness, but it had been enough to take the worst of it and by then he had turned down the first street he came to in order to remove himself from the line of fire.

Then as he ran alone through a dark, unlit street, and his adrenaline ran down, he tried to make sense of what had just happened to his team. There wasn't supposed to be anyone that strong among the Imperial traitors. There wasn't even someone that strong in the Temple forces except a few of the more senior bishops. In fact the Imperials shouldn't have any magic users at all except maybe a few weaklings that had turned to the other side. They should only possess the suits of magically enhanced armor they stole and that's it. This had been much more than that.

It had been like the magic only the vicars used. They occasionally gave demonstrations of the power the god's had bestowed on them and that more freeform magic had been like what he had just been attacked by. Their magic and this woman's were more than a little frightening to behold. And those weird chains, what in the hells had those been? They had whipped around like angry serpents and broke Swords like pieces of kindling.

And the most important question repeated in a loop in his mind as he continued to run. Who had that mage been and where had she come from?

******

Alice heaved a heavy sigh and took a deep, calming breath and her hot exhale fogged in the cool air as the fourth and last of the Temple soldiers turned out of sight as he fled from the fighting. Her arm and legs tingled with leftover excitement and as she let out that breath some of it bled away.

"Was it really alright to let that last one go?" she asked and turned her head to look at Lushia. "I did like you said and used the bomb spell behind him to chase him off faster, but wasn't the objective to defeat them all?"

"Partially," Lushia agreed. "But that man will talk and he'll tell others about how fast he was defeated by you. When they organize against us later, they might hesitate now out of fear of what they've heard about us, which would give us an opening for an attack. And this fight just now wasn't just about defeating all of them. I wanted to see how you'd do in an actual combat situation."

"And?" Alice prompted. She smiled excitedly as she saw Azusa walking over now to join them since the fight was done. Her skin still shivered with a remembrance of her efforts a few moments before.

"You did fairly well considering that you took them completely by surprise and that you didn't actually engage in any close combat yet," Lushia said in a thinking tone. "Though I think it would have been better to use the attack spell among the men instead of using it as a distraction like that. It worked once, but it probably won't happen when they start to figure things out."

"I know that," Alice sighed. "I just hesitated when I thought of accidentally killing someone. But I won't next time; I saw how strong their armor is. It should be just able to let them survive a close hit. I just need to be careful not to hit them directly."

"Good," Lushia said approvingly. Then she let out a pleased laugh. "Did you see that sword we hit though?"

"Yeah, it broke without me even using a strong hit, that strike was supposed to be a feint so I could wrap him up in another one," Alice said thoughtfully. "Did they go for quantity over quality or something?"

"Wouldn't put it past them to do so," Lushia said shrugging her tiny shoulders. "Just remember everything you can about the enemy for later fights. Finding weaknesses is important."

"Are you alright?" Azu asked now. "I saw that they shot at you."

"Perfectly fine!" Alice grinned and turned about a little to show she hadn't taken any injuries other than the ones she already had from when she had been captured. "I broke the attacks with my chains before they even got close."

"Yes," Lushia agreed. "That was decent work, but don't get to far ahead of yourself. Anything can happen in a fight. If you get over-confident now, you might do something foolish later."

Alice nodded her understanding and then stood next to Azusa, "Where to next?"

Azu did her concentrating thing again and then pointed north down the street they were on. "There's a group heading right toward us. They must have heard the fight. And many of the others seem to be gathering at that building with all the fighting. The Imperial soldiers all fled to there or the Admin building where another group of the Temple guys went. All the ones in the middle with us now are in small groups like the last one."

"They're getting organized," Lushia noted aloud. "On both sides. The groups in the middle have to be sweepers to pick up in stragglers that might be behind the Temples lines. We'll take out those. When they realize someone is attacking their rear, they'll be forced to do something about it."

Alice nodded and began to traverse the roofs again to meet the oncoming group.

******

The second fight went much like the first. This time she listened to Lushia and she fired the exploding attack spell straight into and all around the four men. She and her partner had been right about the armor of the enemy being able to absorb the worst of the blasts. After her initial strike all four enemies had been defenseless and shaken. She quickly zapped them all and placed bindings on them before they could recover.

The binding spell was interesting to her now after using it several times. Not only was it strong on its own, but the spell used any magic from the mage it caught to increase its strength. That meant it would steal any magic from an enemy before they could form it into a useful spell. A very nice bit of magic indeed when you were fighting other mages, it meant they had to either use brute force or have someone else free them.

After that Azusa guided her to three more such groups as they skulked about the town on the roofs. None of them seemed to think for a moment that they might be attacked from above; at least she never saw them scanning the rooftops. Considering the large number of buildings they saw with a roof access; that would have been a mistake even with mundane troops. Azusa claimed that the doors were probably there so that in the past, the local population could clear their roofs of heavy winter snow. Alice just wondered if they didn't have such things on Hirtolia because most of the Temple guys rarely looked up.

Now though she had just taken out most of her sixth group. She said most because this group's leader must have heard about her or at least been aware that someone was attacking the sweep teams. Instead of sticking around to try and fight, he immediately took of running toward the Temple troops around the western holdout. He didn't even flinch at leaving his men to her mercies.

The only problem now was that even though she was winning with her surprise tactics against small groups she was growing increasingly tired. After the teleportations earlier and now the attacks on the Hirtolians she was feeling a little ragged. She couldn't summon up as many of the Sapphire bombs as she had in the first few fights and her movements with the chains felt sluggish. Lushia assured her that she was doing decently well, but she knew that she wasn't trained for this and her body was screaming its desire for rest.

Azu's concerned eyes told her that her face must be showing her strain. Her friend was still standing back when she fought, but as soon as she finished Azu was right there next to her to ask if she was alright. It was more than a bit touching to have someone care that much about her well being. Even now as she leaned against a rusty television antenna, Azu was standing close by, just in case.

"I don't…think I can do too many more of these," Alice huffed tiredly.

"I know," Lushia grimaced. "You still have plenty of magic that you can use, but your body is almost at its limit. I keep forgetting that you haven't had any training at all. Sorry, I was never intended to be used by a complete novice."

"It's not a problem," Alice chuckled. "I volunteered for this, remember? You can train me up properly after this and I promise not complain too much."

"Of course you won't complain," Azusa laughed. "You'll probably think its fun. I can see that look in your eyes right now."

"Hmph, you're right about that," Alice snorted in amusement. Then she looked to Lushia again. "What about those reinforcements? We could really use them about now."

"You can't feel them?" Lushia responded with a raised blue eyebrow.

"Huh? That's Azu's thing isn't it?"

"All mages need to learn how to feel out for magic and find their opponents. Azusa's abilities extend well beyond that basic skill and shouldn't be wasted," Lushia chided. "Now close your eyes and think on pushing your mind out and away from your body."

Alice did as she was asked and for a moment she just felt a bit foolish as she stood there in the rain with her eyes closed. Then she felt it. Far to the south she could feel something that her mind resolved into an image of small glowing lights against a black field. The brightness of the lights indicated strength and distance. Several of those incoming mages were incredibly strong and almost blocked out those near them. She tried to count how many there were, but stopped after she it one hundred. Instead she focused on figuring out the distance and speed of travel. Once that was done she quickly resolved the data into an ETA. Math she was good at on her own.

"Good work," Lushia said approvingly. "Now we just need to prepare for their arrival. And I know just the way to do it.

******

Admiral Zander Ravant looked out into the storm pummeled town and felt amazingly calm despite the depressing situation; especially since he stared out of the gaping hole where his outside wall had once been. A quick shot by the now besieging enemy had done that about an hour ago, but he didn't feel the need to relocate just yet. Behind him Major Ramorta, also strangely calm compared to most people in his position, sat at Zander's desk as he gave commands over the radio net while looking at a rough, hand drawn map of the town.

He knew his men were fighting well and were keeping the Temple's inquisition force at bay for the time being. But there was a limit to how long they could last this way, especially in these conditions. Eventually his men would run out of ammo or a hole would be breached in the defensive line somewhere and that would be it. And moral was certainly a problem too along with general fatigue. The Temple forces were fighting with magic as well as more conventional weapons occasionally, so they didn't have to worry about logistics as much. And they could always call more, fresh men from the gateway if they needed help. They also had the greater psychological position since they had just come here after smashing the Imperial forces at the doorways.

All he could really hope for was a tiny weakness in the enemy's siege. If that happened, by some miracle of the gods, he might be able to pull off a breakout and get the men to the ships. If they got to the ships and managed to get the shift engines charged, they could jump somewhere else and go to ground. He wished he'd thought about that option as soon as he'd seen the invasion fail, but unfortunately, only hindsight is even close to perfect. Now the ships were at least five miles from either of the two strong points his men held.

He was about to ask for another update from the major when the door to the room was flung open so hard that it bounced off the already cracked, plaster wall. He frowned at the round dent from the doorknob in the wall before turning to the man who had entered so abruptly.

"Director," he said calmly. "Is there a reason you're barging in here like this? As you can see I'm trying to keep us all alive for a bit longer"

Juden stepped into the room and Zander marveled at the fear and fury on the man's disheveled looking face. He also noted what looked like an angry red burn on the doctor's neck.

"She took them all!" Juden shouted angrily in reply. "All of my subjects are gone!"

Zander sighed heavily. "And why are they still important right now? We have more concerning things to deal with at the moment." Then he frowned as he digested what he'd heard. "What do you mean that 'she' took them?"

"I'm talking about Alice!" Juden complained. It sounded as if he had been dealt a mortal insult. "She…She broke them all free. She tore all the doors open and teleported them to freedom. There's not one girl left. All I have now are the boys in the other building and none of them has shown as much promise as the ones here!"

"You're telling me one teenage girl, one who could only light annoying fires and had only one arm, broke fifty girls out of their rooms and teleported them away?" Zander asked in a light, disbelieving tone. "And how did she manage that feat?"

"I think she had a Relic much like the Vicars posses," Juden said immediately. "She was wearing strange vestments like they do when using theirs and she had this tiny woman sitting on her shoulder. And her magic! She manifested physical objects with it somehow and used them against me."

Zander sighed. _Great_, he thought, _yet another complication._ At least this problem seemed like it wouldn't interfere with keeping his men alive. If the girl escaped, then she escaped. He didn't have the resources to retrieve her and if she had the power to rip steel doors open he didn't have the strength to do so either. He just hoped she went outside somewhere and caused the inquisition trouble. That would be somewhat entertaining.

Dismissing Juden and his stupid troubles from his mind he approached Ramorta like he had intended before the interruption, to get the info he needed to fight this battle.

******

Alice came to a heavy breathing stop as she finally set herself and Azu down onto the large, open roof of what looked to have been a distillery at one point in time. The rear of the building was a mass of steel tanks and tubing and as she had lifted them over and onto the structure she had seen the crates of old bottles sitting around. She could even smell the very faint remainders from the mash tanks. There was a small sake brewery on the island back home and this smell was close to that.

The distillery sat almost in the dead center of the town which was also the highest elevation-wise. The rest of the town was open to her exhausted gaze as it rose up to the encompassing mountains on three sides. Throughout that view were the scurrying lights of Temple teams. They had all started using some kind of light magic that they emitted from their armor and in the stormy night they looked like ghost lights.

As they had traveled inward to this place, word had apparently been spread to the two main enemy concentrations about her attacks. Now dozens of teams were running around the town. It was like someone had tipped over an ant farm of glowing ants onto the town and it broke open. Now they were all running around madly in all directions. She'd been forced three times to use her projectile spell to lay the enemy low long enough for the three of them to keep moving.

The Temple had also apparently wizened up to the fact that she was traveling the rooftops. She could see from here that some of the lights in the distance were on the roofs of buildings as they searched. They had come here because none of the buildings in the immediate vicinity had a stairway access and because Lushia had designated it as the perfect place to do whatever she intended. Alice was just glad that help was almost here. Azusa said she could feel them without concentrating at all now.

"Okay," Alice huffed. "What do I do now Lushia? We're here."

"We are going to use a dangerous bit of magic," Lushia said ominously. "Normally it would require the use of cartridges to get the full effect, but we can use a weakened form for our purposes today."

"Dangerous?" Azu said somewhat nervously as she looked back and forth from Alice and Lushia. "For Alice, or for the other guys?"

"A little of both actually," Lushia answered honestly. "But it will frighten them and keep them back. And it will most assuredly get the attention of the help that's coming too. The whole point of doing this is to frighten and intimidate the Temple soldiers so that they will fall easier to the incoming help. It's only dangerous for Alice because this particular spell was never tested at greater than ten percent strength and never outside of the labs. There's a small chance it could destabilize. But Alice is wearing her armor so the danger is minimal and not life threatening."

"Hmmm," Alice hummed, thinking it over. "I suppose I can give it a go. But I don't have much left in me right now."

"But, Alice…" Azusa tried to object.

"Don't worry Azu," Alice said, putting her hand on her friend's shoulder. "I'll be fine. I know you're worried about me, but I'm okay with this."

"Can I at least help this time?"

"Actually, you can." Lushia interjected. "It would be greatly helpful if you would stand behind Alice and hold her upright as we construct and fire the spell. Since she's already tired, I don't want her to fall while were in the middle."

"I can do that," Azu answered, smiling a little at hearing that she could be involved somehow this time."

"Good, now Alice, stand in the center of the roof and face toward the west."

Alice did as she was asked and once she was in the middle she turned toward the west where one of the remaining buildings being held by the Imperial troops lay as well as a sizeable group of the Temple soldiers. Behind that was the sharp incline of a mountain that arose into the angry storm clouds. It looked to be too steep to be easily climbed on this side and it was covered with a very thin growth of plant life before cutting off a little ways up in bare, lichen coated rock.

From here she could also see the occasional stray shot from the assault taking place on the building. It looked like the Imperial guys had some sort of barrier in place on the building because the magical blasts of the Temple forces seemed to splat against something invisible on occasion instead of the building or imperial troopers themselves as they fired from windows.

"Hey Lushia, what kind of spell is this going to be exactly?" she asked.

"It's a long range siege spell," Alice turned her head to regard her partner with a questioning eyebrow. Lushia smiled and elaborated. "It was never designed to be used during a combat situation. It has too long of a charge time and is much too unwieldy. I believe they wanted a spell to crack open heavily shielded defenses and this was what they were working on to get that result."

Azusa came up behind Alice and her friend wrapped her arms around her middle. The hold was tight and Alice could feel her friend's concern through it. To try and reassure Azu that she was alright, she placed her own hand over Azu's clasped ones.

"Alright Lushia, I guess I'm ready." She said as she widened her stance a bit of added stability.

"Good," Lushia said with a proud smile. "I'll start things up but you will have to work with me. Make sure to keep an eye on the flow of power as we build the spell, we don't want it to explode in our faces."

Alice nodded and almost immediately she felt that familiar tingle in her mind as Lushia transmitted data to her directly. This spell, as it flowed to her, was immeasurably more complex than anything else she had done thus far except maybe the mass teleportations. Lushia let the spell run through her mind for almost ten minutes to make sure she understood the rudiments of it. When she felt she was ready she spoke the activation phrase for Lushia's programming.

"**Angriff-Modus!"**

Alice felt a powerful shifting within Lushia. Unseen mechanisms and parts changed form to support the spell. A large spell form, almost three meters across, formed vertically in the air, high over her right shoulder. It glowed brightly and following the instructions she was being given, Alice summoned one of her chains and shot it into the downward point of the huge triangular form. As soon as it sank in Alice felt more and more information surging into her mind.

In front of the spell form she created, ring after glowing ring of sigil scribed bands appeared. First was a line of ten small ones all lined up in a column that pointed out toward the mountain. Each ring spun in the opposite direction of its neighbors. Then five larger rings formed around the first set and they too began spinning. Finally, a third layer of very wide sigil bands formed around them all. Once the containment was formed and she felt it was stable, she began shoving as much energy as she could into the spell.

As magic flowed out of her in a river, she began breathing in huge heaving gasps and she felt her legs quiver. The spell sucked up the power and the rings began to spin faster and faster. The center column began to shine like a huge, dark blue florescent light. Energy crackled and writhed dangerously within the rings but she knew it was still under her control. It was like trying to restrain a particularly overeager dog, but she was still doing it.

When the spell passed a certain point, images began to superimpose themselves over her vision. It was like a targeting system of some kind. She saw before her the estimated projection of the spell's path when she loosed it as well as ranges. It felt as if she'd plugged her brain into a missile guidance system and her head began to throb painfully from the abuse.

Behind her she heard Azu begin to sing softly close to her ear. That tiny bit of humanity thrown into all the craziness of the magic she was trying to control and form under Lushia's direction calmed her and soothed away a little of her body's desire to stop and give up. She leaned back more fully into her friend's embrace as the spell reached its second stage.

"**Laufen die Kanonen!"**

Now spinning too fast to read the sigils, the bands began to move. They telescoped out into the darkness of the storm, beginning with the smallest inner set of rings. They kept doing so until a long shaft of crackling and throbbing energy hung high over her right shoulder. Running down the center of the long series of rings was what looked like a solid bar of blue light. The entire nearby area of the town was illuminated by it and thrown into sharp contrasting areas of light and shadow. Alice heard the surprised cries of the enemy forces nearby rising up to her ears.

Still she poured more and more power into the spell. She knew it was almost complete and that drove her onwards. Lushia hadn't been kidding about the unstable nature of the spell. It was taking everything she could to keep it from erupting all on its own. It was severely lacking both in containment and control, but there was no time right now to modify or adjust it in mid casting.

But it didn't matter too much. Soon it would be done and then she could rest.

******

Nanoha and almost all one hundred and fifty mages from the ships in orbit flew through the storm as fast as their slowest member would allow. She itched to move on ahead with Fate and those that could keep up, but she knew that they needed the greater numbers badly this time. Even with this many mages being fielded she knew they were going to be stretched thin against the several thousand people they needed to restrain.

That large number of enemies was also the reason they hadn't simply teleported in above the old mining town. There was too high a chance with this many people of vary degrees of experience with such things, that many might simply be shot out of the sky before they could clear their minds when the teleport finished. So instead they came down a little ways away, organized into their squads, and then moved onto the target. She and Fate were each commanding half.

There was a soft chime and a screen bearing Chrono's face appeared. Raisin Heart shifted it to keep it from blocking her forward vision. She saw a similar screen had appeared in front of Fate as well.

"Something the matter, Chrono?" She asked.

"There's a complication with the town you're moving against. Have you heard what just happened?"

"No, I've been organizing the enforcers with Fate. Why?"

"Because fifty girls, all from the list of kidnapped victims, were teleported aboard the _Heibao_ less than an hour ago. And they came from that town, Nanoha."

Nanoha's eyebrows shut up in surprise. "Someone rescued them?!"

"It appears so, and not just anyone. All of the girls agree that one of their own did the rescuing. A girl named Alice and her friend Azusa. That means a completely untrained mage was somehow able to safely transport them all the way from Russia to the L2 Lagrange Point where the ship is located. Those two girls have yet to show up."

"I'm guessing you want me to keep an eye out for them?" Nanoha smiled.

"Yes, I would," Chrono nodded. "And from the stories the girls are telling us there is another group of the boys somewhere in that town. If they are still in enemy hands then this could get messy."

Nanoha grimaced in understanding and a quick glance showed that Fate was equally displeased. A hostage situation where magic was involved was never pretty.

"It's not all bad news," Chrono went on and Nanoha saw he actually smiled now. "The TSA has decided, with the UN's approval, for a full intervention. Two dimensional fleets have already begun moving and the first will arrive at Earth very shortly."

Nanoha felt her spirit pick up a little. A full intervention meant full troop support as well as a tremendous increase in manpower. "Which ones?" She asked. "Which fleets?"

"The 3rd as well as the 32nd navel division; the latter of which will be arriving first as it seems they were already on their way even before the decision was officially made."

The 32nd? Nanoha knew she had heard of them somewhere before but she couldn't place it. Her eyes flicked back forward as they slowly came into visual range of their objective. Almost as soon as the narrow mountain valley was exposed to view Raising Heart let out a cry.

"_**Warning! Dangerous and unstable magic detected!"**_

Almost before the warning was done she saw what her device had picked up. The town had come into view and it was bathed in bright blue light coming from a spell being cast at its center. Just a casual scan through her device showed her that there was a veritable horde of men descending on that position from both the east and west and all of those men had those device-like swords.

She shared a momentary glance with Fate because they both recognized a Belkan spell when they saw it. This had to be the person they were looking for. After nodding once to wish each other good luck, Nanoha dismissed the comm. screen to Chrono and shouted to the enforcers flying with them.

"All TSA mages! Set up the containment barrier and begin pacification. All spell restrictions are lifted so stay safe and support your teams. Now Move!"

With that command every mage in the sky scattered to their assigned tasks. As they did so, Nanoha looked down at the dangerously powerful spell being cast. She would handle that herself.

******

Alice's vision kept trying to dim and it was taking everything she could to stay awake. The spell was just about finished. It would only take a moment more.

In the sky above her, she was vaguely aware of many shining lights, but that awareness was a peripheral thing. Her mind couldn't focus on it at all. She had to devote everything to controlling the spell she and Lushia were building. The world around her suddenly went dark and discolored. She thought her exhaustion was making her eyes play tricks on her.

"Oh damn!" Lushia suddenly whispered harshly. "They're already here. And it's too late to stop. Alice, aim the spell for the mountain! Now!"

Doing as she was being instructed, Alice moved the shaft of light and glowing rings with her mind until the overlaid projection in her vision showed the spell's target point as being high up into the mountainside. That was when she felt something mentally click into place. The spell was done. Almost in one voice, she and Lushia shouted into the night.

"Fire!"

There was a horrible, keening wail and the spinning rings constricted tightly onto the glowing shaft of light. Lightning seemed to crackle down the entire length of the spell and then with a roar, a blast of light erupted out of the rings. The blast sizzled with attendant electrical discharges as it shoved through the night and slammed into the mountain.

For a moment it seemed as if nothing would happen. Then there as was bone deep thump that Alice could feel in her heart. On the mountainside a boil of light grew for a second before an explosion ripped out across the town. The building beneath Alice seemed to kick upwards and she fell along with Azusa to the wet rooftop. She heard Azu's surprised gasp of shock as the overpressure wave continued to assault the town.

"It…It wasn't supposed to be that powerful." Alice heard Lushia whisper quietly in a stunned sounding as she floated down to the roof in front of them. "It was never like that in the lab. Not even once. This must have been what they meant would happen when I synched correctly with a master. I'm sorry Alice; I really didn't know that would happen."

"It's alright," Alice smiled weakly as the wind from the explosion began to die down. "I'm not exactly bursting with knowledge here either. Are you alright Azu? I didn't fall on you did I?"

"I'm fine," Azu said quietly. "As long as you're alright, I'm fine."

*****

"Shields!"

Nanoha shouted the command to everyone as the spell below oriented onto the mountain and fired before she could get there and stop it. Raising her staff before her, she followed her own advice.

"**Round Shield!"**

The shield formed just in time as the spell detonated. Even at this distance the blast was impressively powerful. Even though it was contained within the displacement barrier the enforcers had just raised, the buildings near the blast were gutted and two weaker ones collapsed entirely. The partially shielded structure the Imperial soldiers were defending on that side shimmered as its defenses tried to ward off the spell. The Temple soldiers she saw were much less fortunate since they were not protected by anything other than their armor. An extremely large number of them were knocked to the ground from either the blast front or the ground tremor and many of those looked like they had been thrown hard enough to break bones.

Her own shield protected her without any difficulty and she continued her flight down to the rooftop. As she got closer she saw the spell hadn't entirely dissipated. Its containment rings and the spell form behind them still floated in the air. The rings were moving to collapse inside each other in layers as they slowly spun down. Was it a spell capable of multiple discharges? She wondered.

The occupants of the roof seemed to be talking with each other and they didn't notice her light landing. That gave her a moment to assess them. There were two teenage girls, one sitting behind the other. The closer one was wearing what looked to be Belkan knight armor. She was a bit on the pretty side with long dark hair, but Nanoha's eyes widened when she saw the girl's right arm ended just above the elbow. Instead there was a stump covered by a black, cloth cap. The second girl, this one with dark chestnut hair, was sitting behind the first with her arms wrapped supportively around the girl. Nanoha noted the severely drained look of the mage and understood why the second girl was helping her.

Then she gasped involuntarily when she saw something move off the armored girl's left shoulder. It was a very tiny woman with dark blue hair and her tiny eyes were staring right at Nanoha with deadly seriousness. Nanoha could only feel disbelief at seeing something she had only seen two examples of before, ever.

"Alice," the tiny person spoke softly.

Both of the girls looked up from their private conversation with each other and a heartbeat later they locked on her. Before she had even taken another breathe Nanoha whipped Raising Heart up to block a thick, spike headed, silver chain that came sizzling out of a spell form near the mage girl. Before the first even had a chance to bounce of her staff, a second came in from her right side. Surprised at the determined assault, Nanoha raised a shield to stop the second chain.

"Alice, Stop!" At the cry from the small woman both chains vanished instantly.

Both girls looked at the small woman in obvious question.

"She's the help we were waiting for." The woman said slowly, addressing the girls. "She's here to help so don't attack her."

The mage girl looked back at Nanoha and gave a sheepish smile. "Sorry, I'm tired."

Nanoha pointed up at the spell still floating in the air. "It's alright, I wasn't harmed. But could you please get rid of that?"

The girl looked up in apparent surprise before muttering, "lösen."

The silver chain running to the spell vanished and the entire assembly of rings seemed to slide backwards into nothing. Then a moment later it was gone. As soon as it vanished the mage girl collapsed sideways to the ground. Both the second girl and the small woman gasped in concern and Nanoha took a step forward to try and help the girl. Before she had taken a second one the second girl, the one dressed in a bright orange prison outfit stood and moved in front of her companion with her fists clenched protectively.

"I'm not going to harm her," Nanoha said to try and placate the obviously nervous teenager. "I just want to help."

"It's alright Azu," the collapsed girl said quietly. "She's a good guy."

The girl seemed to relax a little and dropped her arms as she moved to step aside and let her through. But then she stopped and stared disbelievingly up into the sky. Nanoha looked up to see what the problem was. Past the flying forms of the enforcers as they struck at and captured the Temple men, was a roiling and angry sky. The clouds seemed to be boiling like a particularly angry sea. Through Raising Heart she felt out the cause and smiled at the girl.

"It's alright, just watch."

She heard the audible gasp from all three women as an enormous section of the sky bulged downward. When the clouds broke away, a titanic triangular shape floated down through the sky. From bow to stern it was almost five hundred meters long and half that at its widest point. It was just over a quarter million tons of metal and advanced composites. Its sleek shape brought her much relief. It was in fact, one of the TSAB's LS-class battleships and through Raising Heart she gleaned its name. It was the _Wolfram._

That was when she felt her own very pleasant feeling of surprise. She knew this ship and who was aboard it. It explained why she had recognized the division number. It belonged to a very close friend.

Glancing down she almost laughed at the disbelieving look on the girls' faces and the clearly impressed one on the face of the miniature woman.

"Who is that?" said the mage girl from her regained seat on the roof. "Is that yours?"

"No it's not mine," Nanoha laughed. Before she could explain further Fate's face popped up in a comm. window.

"Is it her Nanoha?" Fate asked with a grin that Nanoha matched.

"Yeah, that's her ship. That means this little party will be over shortly."

"That's perfectly fine with me," Fate answered. "We haven't seen her in a while. Where are you anyways?"

"I'm with that mage that sent those girls to the _Heibao_. Once I've got things sorted out here I'll join back up with you."

Fate smiled back in that way that always made Nanoha's heart beat faster and then she cut the connection. She looked back over to the girls and saw all three looking at her with great curiosity. The brown haired girl had knelt next to her friend and seemed to be trying to help her stand up.

"That ship," she continued to explain as she reached down to grab under the mages armpit to help lift her up with the other girl, "belongs to a good friend of mine. She's part of the reinforcements we've been asking for since this whole thing began."

*****

Once she was upright again thanks to the help of Azu and the strange woman, Alice felt dizzy. And not just because of her physical exhaustion. She felt like events were seriously outpacing her now. First she fired of that spell even though she no longer needed to because she hadn't been capable of cutting it off. Then, while she was trying to recover from that, flying people had come zipping in through the sky. She hadn't noted them until the woman before them had landed on their roof, but now they seemed to be all over the place.

All around them she could see the flying forms of mages as they fought and fired magic upon the Temple soldiers. One particular person that glowed with a bright yellow light seemed to zip and pop around everywhere. Alice regarded their visitor again and marveled at what she saw.

The woman looked to be fairly young, probably not yet out of her twenties, yet through Lushia she could feel the power this woman could wield if she wanted to. It was that power that had triggered her blind panic when the woman had shown up and surprised them. She was dressed all in white and in her hands she held an odd looking staff. The whole time as she stood there and explained things and talked with that other person, she had kept a constant, pleasant smile on her face.

Letting Azu support her, Alice watched in amazement as that huge ship descended slowly above the town. It was a massive construct in a roughly triangular shape with two short, stubby sections sticking out in the front. As it got closer, four enormous screens like Lushia and this mystery woman could make appeared in the air so that they boxed in entire the town. In them was an unassuming young woman seated at a wooden desk with her arms folded calmly in front of her. She had short brown hair and an expression of affability.

"Attention to all non-TSA individuals in the town below. I am Naval Investigations, Division Commander, Hayate Yagami. Under the directive of the TSAB council I have been ordered here to end the magical hostilities on this world and to end the invasion. You can surrender yourselves to my personnel willingly or through force, but one way or another, you will be taken into my custody. I ask that you make the correct choice."

Almost as soon as the voice cut off, narrow slits of light opened up along the sides of the ship. From these slits glowing clusters of light shot out and descended to the town. They poured out until it seemed like the air was swimming with the forms of flying men and women as they cast spells and attacked foes. Two large groups of mages flew at the two Imperial occupied buildings.

"See," the strange woman said, again with that smile on her face. "Everything will be quickly taken care of. The TSA has a lot of experience with these kinds of things so it should get wrapped up fairly soon."

Alice just nodded numbly. "Uhm…who are you?" she asked.

"Oh!" The woman seemed to blush a little. "Sorry, I'm Commander Nanoha Takamachi from the Time-Space Administration Bureau. And you are?"

Alice held out a hand and the woman took it in hers good naturedly. Azusa kept the gesture from turning into a forward tumble on her part. "Alice Rhoads. And this is my friend Azusa Higa and my partner Lushia." Azusa nodded slightly at the mention of her name and from her shoulder seat, Lushia did a small bow.

After releasing her hand, the woman, Nanoha, looked at her with momentary thoughtfulness. "Did you say Alice Rhoads?" Alice nodded. "Do you have a father named Howard Rhoads who is a Marine officer?"

This time it was Alice's look at the woman in shock. "You know my father?!"

"I guess that's a yes," Nanoha chuckled. "Your capture was reported to us and he told me personally when I met him. He'll be happy to see you're alive and well."

For some reason the good new was the final straw for her already overtaxed mind. Almost as soon as she heard that her father was alright and looking for her she sagged in Azusa's arms. When she slumped to the rooftop again it was with a smile on her face.

******

Nanoha gasped as Alice collapsed into her friend's arms. The small woman quickly took to the air and frowned in concern at the girl. The other girl, Azusa, started shouting for her friend to wake up.

"Alice! Alice! Are you alright?!"

Nanoha stooped down and placed a hand on the girl's shoulder. "Your name was Azusa right?" The girl nodded with tears in her eyes. "Alice will be fine. She's just tired from abusing her magic. I'm going to bring you both to a safe place where you can both rest." Nanoha looked to the small woman who was regarding her calmly. "What about you?"

"I go where Alice goes," The woman smiled. "And you quite literally can't change that."

"Wasn't planning to separate you," Nanoha smiled back.

"I'm staying with her too," Azusa said forcefully, her hands gripping Alice's cape tightly.

"That's fine," Nanoha assured her. Again she looked to Lushia. "I assume that you are her device?"

"Correct," Lushia nodded.

"Then can you release Alice's armor?"

This question brought a look of suspicion to the woman's face, "why?"

"Because, they will insist upon it when I have her brought aboard that ship above us so she can rest and have a few doctors look at her. They won't allow potentially dangerous magic to be active on a person being brought aboard."

"I guess that's a good enough reason," this time Lushia actually laughed. Nanoha wondered if all unison devices had such excitable personalities. A moment later Alice shimmered and her armor vanished to reveal a costume like her friend had on. At the same time there was a shimmering around the second girl as well. When the light all went away the rain began to soak both girls and Azusa let out a small shriek at the shock of suddenly being soaked with cold water.

"Sorry," Nanoha laughed. "I didn't know she was the one keeping you dry. I'll hurry and get to sending you up." She reached mentally through Raising Heart and a comm. screen opened with a young man's face in it.

"This is the _Wolfram_," the man said in a business-like tone. "The Division Commander has been expecting a call from you commander Takamachi. Shall I try to pass you through to her?"

"In a moment yes," Nanoha said. "But first I need to have three—"

"Two," Lushia corrected. "I am permanently attached to Alice. I will go where she goes."

"Right," Nanoha smiled at the confused comm. officer. "I need to have these two people taken aboard and given a looking over by a doctor; especially the one that will be arriving unconscious."

"Of course Ma'am," the officer responded. "They are not part of the hostile group we're engaged with?"

"No," Nanoha confirmed. "They were both among those taken captive by that group. The unconscious one, Alice, has somehow acquired a device, but she is not to be treated as dangerous. And I have promised them that they would remain together, could you see that that is told to the medical personnel? "

"Yes Ma'am. I'll relay that information to them. Please stand by for the teleportation. Yours is currently the tenth in queue so it may take a moment. I'll reconnect with you when the commander is ready." With that he nodded respectfully and cut the line.

"Are we really going up there?" Azusa asked nervously, pointing at the ship.

"Don't worry about it," Nanoha told her. "You will be safe and taken care of at all times. The TSAB has always shown good hospitality to its guests."

Azusa looked like she wanted to say more, but the glowing circle of the teleportation appeared beneath her and Alice. Nanoha stepped back to make sure she was clear of it. "Don't worry," she said again. "I'll be up there shortly and I'll make sure the both of you are fine when I do." Azusa gave her a small smile and then the magic finished powering up and the girl vanished along with her friend.

Smiling at a job done well, she gave Raising Heart a command to remind her about checking up on the two girls. She didn't want to forget during the coming work and excitement. That done she turned back to the chaos of the town. Everywhere she looked Temple teams were being captured and bound by teams of TSA mages. All of the ones she had brought were acting according to her orders to never go solo, so they had plenty of power and experience to handle this. A quick search of the sky showed her Fate's location and a quick running leap had her airborne in that direction.

It was time to get back to work

* * *

Author's notes:

laufen die Kanonen – very roughly translates to "run out the guns/cannons." It's a term from old navel ships. This command was given when the canon were rolled forward and out of their gun ports.

Angriff-Modus – Assault mode

Lösen – disengage. This term, at least according to my source(google) has a number of varying meanings. For my purposes, I am using this translation.

Sapphire Bombs: A projectile spell that Alice can detonate on command.

Note: I know it's going to seem like Alice is learning magic really quickly, but its pretty much being forced into her head from Lushia. She wouldn't be doing this well on her own.

* * *

AluciusDawn: Sorry if the last chapter was a little exposition heavy. I usually try to blend in the necessary world building in my stories throughout the main storyline, but I felt that I needed to get the background information out there this time. I tried to do it in a not so boring way. As for Lushia's previous master, he was supposed to be someone who was very high up and powerful even by Al-Hazard's standards. Lushia never knew his exact status, but he was high enough to see the dangers that were coming. And remember, it took him two years to construct the seal for Earth with the assistance of the generators on his ship; he didn't do it all in a day. And yeah, I remember the boys; I just needed a way for them to be rescued.

Thanks for continuing to read, your input is much appreciated.


	6. Cleanup

Zander knew he looked like a slack jawed idiot from some remote farming village, but in all honesty, he really didn't care. All he could make himself do was to stare up into the sky. He'd known that the organization calling itself the Time-Space Administration Bureau had spacecraft in obit above the planet. But that had been an abstract kind of knowledge. It was just what the sensors on the ships had told him was there and those same sensors had been built by the late God-kings, so who had he been to argue with them. But now, right in front of him and in full view of everyone in the town was a titanic vessel dwarfing anything he had ever seen. It even seemed to make the storm that surrounded it seem less impressive.

Its stupendous arrival had terrified his men and he wasn't sure that he wasn't among that number. The shear amount of power it must take to keep something of that mass from falling on all their heads filled him with a chilled awe. It was like reading one of those children's tales about flying mountains. In those stories the mountains were always occupied by devils that scourged the land beneath them until a hero showed up and assailed the evil place. The glowing forms flying out of the floating ship certainly seemed like devils as far as he and his men were concerned. It was only a matter of time before they were done with the Temple soldiers and were ready to deal with them.

In a slightly perverse way, he almost looked forward to it. Since he and his men had no chance against a foe that could field this many magic users of power, there was no question about how long they would be able to resist. What they were doing to the Temple men was a clear and defining example of this fact. Squads of flying mages pounced on groups of temple men like vengeful birds of prey and when they took off again, the temple men were gone, taken away by the forces under the command of that nice, kind looking, young woman.

He felt it was almost unfair for his defeat to come by such a friendly looking person. Even now he could visualize his men getting pounded into the dirt by that young lady while she apologized repeatedly and sincerely for having to do so. It would have been much more appropriate if he faced some grizzled old veteran who had years of experience with war. But he didn't exactly have a choice in the matter did he? Events had decided things for him and there was no changing it. At least most of his men would live through this.

That possible grace for his men was a blessing in itself. When that bright blue light from that crazy spell had lured away a large number of the men assaulting his command building, he had been a hair's breadth away from ordering a break out attempt. The offensive had weakened and it had been the best shot he had been offered, but something about that spell had caused him to hold back. And he was glad he did. That blast had been frighteningly powerful and Ramorta had reported that the other holdout's generators had barely held the shield up against it. The operators of those mysterious machines had been forced to flee the room occupying them due to the shear amount of heat being cast of as a result. Had his men been out in the streets running for the ships, they would have been knocked just as senseless as the Temple men were; easy pickings for the Bureau.

Despite his incredulity at what was floating over all their heads, he also felt a bit relieved. After the failure of the invasion, he had worried about the possible futures available to his men. Perhaps he could have sought some kind of clemency from one of Earth's nations, but he didn't really think that was a viable option. Why would they help? Zander had personally ordered the deaths of untold numbers of local people on top of crippling them economically and politically. He was the single worst mass murderer this planet had ever seen, and from the histories he had read since coming here, that was something that took some doing. The possibility that anyone would help them after that was so minute and laughable that he had a better chance of swimming back to Hirtolia than of that happening.

Sighing, he turned his head a bit to the right and allowed himself a small smile. Ramorta, stone faced leader of soldiers, was standing next to him with the first expression of surprise that Zander had ever seen on the ever serious man's face. Laughing silently, he turned back to watch the fascinating work of enemy mages. Their skill was readily visible and he felt a shameless flash of envy. If the Empire had even a fraction of the power at work before his eyes their worries would have been a thing of the past. Instead, great irony that it was, he was going to be defeated by the same power that he had been trying to gain.

He sighed again. _Oh Well,_ he thought. _Life just isn't fair. _

Now if only the Temple fighters would just hurry and give up. He wished to be finished with this. He was ready for his fate to come to pass.

******

Nanoha plummeted toward the rain soaked ground like a living, white-clad missile. Below her, the ground rushed up with such speed that the experience still, after all these years, gave her a heady rush of adrenalin fueled excitement. She knew of course, that she had a potentially deadly serious task to perform, but flight was something that always filled her with an indescribable joy. The only thing that ever compared to flying in the sky was being with Fate and Vivio. Which was why, when she leveled out at a high, vision blurring speed down a street filled with rusting detritus, she had a wide smile across her face.

"Load Cartridge!"

Raising Heart bellowed steam from its exhaust vents as four cartridges fired in rapid succession, each with a sharp, familiar hiss as the magic they contained was released to flood through her and the device. In front of her, charging down the street was a small horde of the Temple soldiers. They had seen her approach and they were riling themselves up to fend her off.

As she raced closer, the enemy soldiers suddenly became speckled with red sparks as they charged their own spell against her. Then those sparks leapt out to meet her. Sizzling balls of angry energy came in a deadly hail. Well, deadly for an unarmored person anyway and she was far from unprotected.

A single thought brought a minor barrier up in front of her and she wove through the air. A few basic jinks and nice roll because it was fun had her easily through the enemy's fire. The stray shots pummeled the buildings around her shattering stone, brick and all of the little remaining glass. She barely noticed. Those few blazing projectiles that were on their mark or one or two she was unable to avoid because of the shear volume of attacks coming at her, she easily shrugged aside with her barrier.

"_**Axel Shooter."**_

Around her, dozens of glowing spheres bloomed into existence and kept attendance around her body. With the energies from the cartridges she made enough of them that an outside observer would have been barely able to see her through the cloud. Finally she crossed the range threshold that she had set Raising heart to watch for. Shoving her staff out in front of and shouting "shoot!" at the top of her lungs, she blasted over the massed enemy concentration.

Like a strafing aircraft, her spell bolts separated and shot downwards in a long, jagged line. Each bolt smacked into its target and erupted in a pink boil of light until the street looked like a fiery Christmas light display. She had targeted each shot so that all of the enemy forced would be affected. As soon as she was fully clear she rocketed upwards at almost a right angle to regain altitude. When she reached somewhere around a thousand feet into the air she saw out of the corner of her eye, three squads of TSA mages moving in to secure the enemies she had just taken out.

Slowing her ascent, she turned her body to watch over them. This was the second run like this that she had performed but it was still an effective tactic against foes that had large numbers but lacked in individual power. It was also effective against forces that seemed to find aerial foes troublesome. A blast of yellow light to her right caught her attention and she glanced over to see Fate doing her own attack run against another concentration that had gathered in a small square. Fate was using her own style to do it, but she knew it would be no less effective.

By an unspoken agreement, the forces under her and Fate's command were tackling the western half of the town where Alice had cast that spell of hers, and Hayate's reinforcements were going after the east. Nanoha didn't have any doubts about who would finish first. In fact she allowed herself a small chuckle when she observed a mage that was glowing bright red as she plowed unhindered through a building. Vita was just as energetic as she always was. Signum's position was also readily apparent. She was cutting a swath right down the road in front of the Imperial command building. Nanoha hadn't seen Zafira yet, but Raising Heart had picked up his magic at work as well. She itched to go and fight alongside her old friends, but that wouldn't do just yet. .

Another group of Temple soldiers rounded a large structure in a panicked run and came into her view and area of responsibility. They were easy targets. Again she brought her shooter bolts up around her and pointed downward.

"Shoot!"

A very precise rain of pink spheres plummeted at the group in a pink rain. She heard a faint, combined yell just before her spell struck home. When the view cleared, all her targets lay still, safely unconscious.

As unconsciously she brought her staff back in a ready position, Fate floated up beside her. The other woman's face was flushed from her own excitement and efforts. It was a look Nanoha found that she liked on Fate, though she knew she could never voice that opinion. Fate was a tad bit shy about those kinds of comments.

"How is it going on your side?" Nanoha asked instead, smiling in greeting..

"No problems," Fate said, smiling back at her. Nanoha knew she was enjoying herself too. "It doesn't seem like very many of them know how to fly, so it's all been fairly simple."

Those mages from the Temple that did know how to fly, had already learned to their detriment why that wasn't a good idea. The first few that had tried had been swarmed by every TSA enforcer in sight. Now they had learned that the sky was uncontested TSA territory. Nanoha knew it was only a matter of time until the ground was under control too.

"Same here," Nanoha said. "The _Wolfram_ says we've taken out almost sixty percent of them already. It helps that they keep clumping together. If they hunkered down in the buildings separately this would we a whole lot more difficult, but they never do for whatever reason."

"I know," Fate nodded. Then she smiled widely. "Did you see that building Vita went through?"

"It was hard not too," Nanoha chuckled. "She must have been cooped up for a while. She's going all out."

"Maybe we should offer to spar with her when this is over?" Fate said a little excitedly. "We haven't had a chance in a long while and after all the leave you've taken for Vivio, you need the workout!"

Nanoha's eyes opened wide for a stunned moment, but then she grinned. It wasn't often that Fate teased her, but it was always a sign that she was in a very good mood when she did it. And the statement was true too; she hadn't really done much since she became Vivio's mother. The idea of a having a go with Vita and maybe Fate as well sounded like a lot of fun; even more so if they could get Signum, Hayate and Zafira all in on it too.

"Well we have to take care of this first," Nanoha said, pointing down at the town. "We can have our fun later."

"Right, but I am going to suggest it," Fate returned happily, then hefted Bardiche. "Lets's go!"

******

Grand Bishop Harian was not what one would call a happy man. In fact he was a very, very unhappy man.

"They Gods rend them all!" he cursed at the uncaring wall of cracking plaster that was just a few feet in front of where he had stopped his angry pacing..

He found it absolutely galling that he, a Grand Bishop of the Temple, was forced to cower inside his own forward command center like a prairie rat. Not more than an hour ago local-time, he had been orchestrating the defeat of the traitorous Imperials. The men around him had been proud and confident as they relayed his orders and followed them through. But now everything was coming unraveled faster than he could speak.

It had started when he began to receive those odd reports of a woman terrorizing his rear sweep forces. He had assumed that it was just a lone nuisance to be taken care of, but that person had been annoyingly difficult to track down and kill. Then that stranger had begun casting that horrendous spell. It shamed him deeply to admit even in the privacy of his own mind, that he had been afraid of that thing, but the gods would still see the lie if he tried to deceive himself.

But now he was well and truly horrified to his marrow. That thing, that huge monstrous thing, flying in the sky, felt like a tombstone to mark the death of his mission and himself. He was going to fail. He could see no way to stop that ship. His men were in complete disarray and not a man among them would listen to any orders once they were out of his direct sight. They were all running around like cowards and gathering together in a futile effort to find protection in numbers that wouldn't matter.

He knew that reflex to gather was a psychologically ingrained thing from Hirtolia's past. From those dark times when they ran in tight knit tribes and families, times in which being alone meant a slow, starving death. Now that instinct was getting them gobbled up by the score and then swept way with enemy teleportation magic.

That part hurt too, the not knowing where they went. What was happening to his captured men?

Part of his own fear was from the fact that he too was giving into the same folly as his men. Around him, in the heavily mildewed interior of a building he had appropriated as a command center for the siege against the holdouts, was a substantial number of men that he had retained because of the same instinctual panic that was sweeping everyone else. He wished he could order them to leave him to face the enemy on his on, but it was too late for that.

"Ehhh?!"

Harian and everyone else all turned at the loud exclamation coming from the gaping windows on the building's south wall. Harian blinked once at the sight. Floating six inches off the ground was a tiny girl dressed all in red and black with an odd hammer propped on one shoulder. The girl's expression was one of pleasant surprise and her eyes were those of a hunter that had found its prey.

"So this is where the big guys have been hiding away," the girl remarked to herself in a gruff, yet cheerful tone. "I was getting bored of all the wimps running around this place." Her eyes swept the room full of tense Inquisitors. "Any of you good in a fight?"

Harian felt rage replace fear. "A child?!" He bellowed angrily as he clenched his fists. "They have sent a child to defeat us? Complete with stuffed animals on her hat? This is insulting!"

The girl frowned at that and pointed at him almost casually with her hammer. "I happen to like this hat." The girl smirked oddly. "And I'm older that you, by several centuries at least."

"Centuries?" Harian responded mockingly. "Did they send you here to toy with us until a real warrior could come?"

This comment brought the frown back. The predatory light in the small girl's eyes also grew. "A real warrior is what you want?" the girl said slowly. "Done." The girl swept her hammer through the air before her and spoke clearly, "**Schwalbe Fliegen,**"

Harian's eyes widened in surprise as a multitude of silvery, red limned balls appeared with soft chiming sounds in the air. Two more passes from the girls open hand produced many more, enough for every man in the room. That done, the girl pulled her hammer back for a heavy swing and Harian realized the girl wasn't joking. She was going to defeat them all. He was going to be taken down by a mere child.

That was his last thought before one of those balls sent him into blissful darkness when it connected solidly with his stomach.

******

Nanoha was still floating in the sky, but now she was surrounded by a large number of communication and command screens. As the fight had progressed throughout the night, she had become less and less necessary on the ground. As the number of prisoners grew and complications arose she had been forced to step back and coordinate things with her troops, Hayate's and the _Wolfram_.

Fate was still out leading from the front where she could blast out any last pockets of heavy resistance. There weren't too many of those left. The Temple soldiers were almost all in singles now. Like she had feared earlier, that was making them hard to find, but the searchers from the ship overhead were helping a lot to alleviate that problem. She had linked Raising Heart to those same information feeds so that gave her an excellent view from which to issue orders. .

A second transport ship had arrived a short time ago in orbit above the planet. That gave them plenty of space in which to house the enemy combatants once they were neutralized. Fatalities had also been kept to an absolute bare minimum. That was something the TSAB generally felt a bit of pride about. Being able to wipe out a force of several thousand armed and magically capable men with only twenty seven deaths was not an easy thing to accomplish. And four of those deaths had actually come from structural collapses in the buildings those men had tried to hide in.

A new screen popped up with the others and Raising Heart shuffled it forward for her attention. She smiled when she immediately recognized the stern faced woman and her tiny companion. "Good evening Signum, Agito. It's good to you two again."

"And you as well, Nanoha," Signum replied with a smile despite her serious tone. Agito, ever fiery dispositional and mischievous with just about anyone other than Signum, waved a hand with a "Hay'ya Nanoha," and then went back to her lazy looking mid-air lounge.

.

"I see that you and Vita have mostly gotten the east side of the town wrapped up," Nanoha said with a glance at a status screen. "What can I do for you?"

"Yes, there are almost no more body readings on our side," Signum confirmed in a satisfied manner. "Vita will we heading your way soon to help finish up things. I just need your permission to move against the command building of the other forces."

"My permission?"

"Yes, Chrono told us on our way in that you were in command for this operation."

"Oh," Nanoha said, chewing that over. Chrono had never understood why she had turned down almost all the promotions that had been offered her. This was his way of saying that he disagreed with that choice. "Well, I'll leave things to you Signum. Give them an offer to surrender, but if they refuse feel free to act as you see fit."

"Understood," Signum said with a nod. "Then well get to it. Just make sure to see Vita when you get a chance. She's been excited ever since she found out we were coming here."

"I'll definitely do that," Nanoha laughed.

Signum nodded again and the screen disappeared.

Still smiling at seeing an old friend again she looked up and realized that the rain had stopped and the clouds were rapidly thinning out. She thought it was an appropriate end to the night. Then she got back to work and grinned as she wondered in the back of her mind whether not she should introduce Agito to Alice's little friend.

******

Zander felt oddly at peace with himself. Soon they would be coming for him, but he would do everything in his power to keep his men from sharing a punishment that he alone deserved. He didn't think it should be to much longer now. All the movement that he could see from his office vantage point belonged to the mages from the Bureau.

Those mystery men and women from another unknown world had quickly and efficiently rooted out every man from the Temple in the immediate vicinity. He had watched two of those mages do a lot of the work all by their lonesome. The one that had cleared the main street in front of his command building had been particularly impressive.

She was a striking figure and he had thought that it was highly ironic that she had cut her way through with a sword of flames. Not one person had been able to slow her steady walk down the time and weather abused pavement. And she hadn't stopped to attack his men. He had ordered, very firmly, that she was to remain unmolested, and it seemed that the woman had been inclined to reciprocate. Instead she had walked right past, continuing her clean-up of the street below. Except now she was back. She stood calmly with her arms folded as she gazed up at him.

"Major," he said quietly.

"Yes sir?" Ramorta responded next to him.

"Walk with me please."

"Yes sir."

Zander turned toward the door to the room and his eyes widened when he saw that Juden was still here. The man was leaning against the wall with an expression of complete depression, but he hadn't left. Zander pointed at him with on of his age-gnarled fingers. "Juden, you're coming too."

"What? Me? Where are we going?" the man said in a baffled stream.

"We are all going to go down to the street and have a nice chat with that lady down there. We should probably do so promptly, before she decides to come and get us herself." Zander felt amusement at his own light tone.

"We're going to meet them?!" Juden responded in horror. "What do you need me for?"

"You're the leader of the research team," Zander said with a small smile. "It's your responsibility."

Zander began walking out of the room and looked over his shoulder to Ramorta. "Make sure he tags along, would you?"

"Happily sir," Ramorta answered.

As he continued down the hall he heard a yelp from Juden as Ramorta castigated him into movement. Ramorta had never liked Juden very much. He knew it was probably because Juden was a traitor. Things like that never sat well with the Major and Zander understood why. You could never be fully sure a traitor wouldn't change his colors against you and Juden had also shown himself to be a coward at heart.

As he walked through the empty passage, he also felt a moment of sadness. This building and the ships out in the lake, they had been his home here in this world and now he was going to be forced to go gods know where, possibly even off planet. This place had been a dingy, decrepit, mildew infested mess, but he and his men had enjoyed it for the most part.

His sturdy boots thumped ominously as he descended down the stairs to the main lobby. When he stepped into that large, open space, he saw that it was filled to brimming with his men. They noticed his approach and a murmur quickly had a path cleared for him to the door. Or doorway to be more specific since the double doors of the building had long since been blasted to splinters during the fighting.

Outside there was an equally large number of men. They were all crowded into the space inside the makeshift barricade. They too created a path to let him and the other two by. He noticed that a large number of the men had already discarded their weapons. That meant they knew the likely outcome of this meeting and had already thrown in their position on it. They didn't look afraid though which was a relief and another mark of pride for him.

When he reached the barricade he saw that a space had already been cleared for him there as well so that he could walk out into the street unhindered. He found the woman standing just as he'd seen her a moment ago. She stood with her arms crossed and her sword sheathed. Her face was set hard and her odd uniform made her look even more impressive. He could have sworn that her hair had been blonde during the fighting, but now it hung in a purplish tail that waved slightly in the lightening pre-dawn.

"Morning," he said in greeting as he came to a halt, deliberately placing himself so that he was just out of reach if she drew her blade. His eyes widened when he realized that the woman was not alone. There was another woman, this one with odd bat-like wings, floating in the air at her shoulder. The tiny woman was looking at him with a smile that made him a little uncomfortable.

"It's another one!"

Zander turned crossly at Juden's outburst. The offending man walked forward quickly and pointed a finger at the tiny woman.

"It was just like that!" Juden said loudly. "The thing that Alice escaped with was just like her!"

"Major," Zander said in an annoyed growl.

"Right away sir."

Ramorta walked up to the Director, grabbed him with one hand by his white coat and then back-handed him hard across the face. Juden immediately glared at the soldier.

"What was that for?!" he cried indignantly.

"For acting like an ass," Zander said calmly. He returned his attention to the two women. He noticed that they looked very interested in what Juden had said. So, maybe Juden had been raving insanely when he had been ranting about Alice's escape. It didn't really matter though. "Sorry about that," he apologized. "He is slightly unbalanced. I'm Admiral Zander Ravant, commander of the Imperial forces on Earth."

"Commander Signum," the woman responded seriously and gestured to her partner with one hand, "and Lieutenant Agito." The tiny woman nodded at the mention of her name. "Could you explain please, what that man was talking about?"

"This is Director Juden; he was in charge of our research. He is referring to one of his subjects. The girl escaped in a rather spectacular fashion and Juden claims she did so in the company of tiny woman, much like the one with you."

Signum frowned at him. "While that is interesting, it doesn't actually seem to be of concern for us. I am however interested in the name you just mentioned, did you say Director Juden?"

"That is who I am," Juden said, answering for himself. "What of it?"

"You are under arrest!" Agito said with a laugh.

"What she means," Signum elaborated. "Is that the liberated subjects of your experiments were sent to a ship under out control. They have all been questioned about the events that led to their capture and what happened while here. The record of this was sent to the UN of Earth and they relayed a request that the person, Director Juden, be apprehended and sent for trial at the International Court of Justice under the charges of mass kidnapping, child abuse, and general crimes against humanity."

Zander blinked and felt a bit stunned at that explanation. He'd had no idea that the girls had already made their way to these people. And crimes against humanity? He didn't know what the punishment was for that, be he thought it likely that he would probably be charged with that as well unless there was a separate charge for mass homicide on a global scale.

Juden also seemed to be stunned at being labeled a wanted criminal. Then he snapped out of it and glared at the two women. "I'm a researcher!" he declared. "How does it make me a criminal just because there were a few bumps along the way?"

"We really aren't interested in listening to you," Agito laughed. She snapped her fingers and Zander watched in surprised amusement as four glowing rings appeared on Juden's limbs which then locked into place. He tried not to laugh as Juden struggled to moved, but those things didn't budge.

Signum nodded satisfactorily at her partner and then looked at Zander again. "Now for you," she said calmly. "Since you are in charge, my message is for you. My commander, Hayate Yagami, and the ground force commander have both requested that I ask for you to surrender. This includes the complete surrender and disarming of your men and the safe return of the remaining hostages in the building across town. Should these conditions not be met in a timely manner, force will be applied."

_She doesn't mess around, _Zander thought with an internal smile. "I have heard and understood your conditions," Zander answered. "May I ask what the fate of my men will be?"

"Those that did not take part in the kidnapping of the children or the inhumane research will be remanded as prisoners of war. They will be treated well, but they will be prisoners until a decision is made on the matter by a TSAB council vote. The noted others are to be tried here on Earth for the relevant crimes they have committed. All command elements such as yourself will also be tried here."

Zander sighed. It was far better than he had hoped. He had managed to convince himself that his men might share his fate. It was good to know that the harsher penalties would be limited. "Understood," he answered. He turned to Ramorta who was looking as if he knew what was coming. "Major, please radio all forces to stand down and surrender to these people and to follow their instructions. The other building's barrier is to be taken offline immediately and the remaining male research subjects are to be released unharmed."

"Yes sir," Ramorta answered. He turned about and walked back inside to use the radio set in the office.

Zander turned and loudly addressed the men that were here before him. "Men, you heard the conditions. All of you are to completely disarm. That means both your firearms and your armor. If you don't fight or cause problems you will be treated well. Is this understood?!"

"Sir, understood sir!" came the training ingrained reply.

"Then get to it!" he shouted. Then he turned back to the two women and offered his hands. "You may begin with me if you wish."

"No, you will go last," Signum said in a manner he recognized as being respectful. "You have good control over your men and that may be needed as we process them." She waved a hand and a screen appeared next to her with the face of that young woman in it. "They have agreed to surrender," Signum said.

"That's good to hear," the woman responded with a smile. "Good work, I'll send the teams now."

"Thank you," Signum answered warmly.

Almost before the screen even had a chance to vanish mages began to appear in clumps. Many carried a staff but there was some variation in their armament. Two walked up to Juden, cuffed him, and then vanished with him. Others moved in among his men and shouted directions. It ran so smoothly that he knew that these people must have trained for situations like this.

Four mages cast a spell together and a brightly glowing circle of shapes and other things appeared on the ground. His men were led to the circle in blocks of six. Once there they were whisked away. Another such circle was made a short distance away and the process was sped up. By the time the building was clear and only he and Ramorta remained the sun was just cresting over the eastern mountain where it broke through the now sparse cloud cover.

He was still watching that sunrise when light appeared beneath his feet. He turned to look questioningly at Signum.

"Your turn," she confirmed.

Nodding, he closed his eyes and let the magic take him.

******

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

Nanoha let out a long appreciative groan as she laid back into the blessedly soft mattress of a ship bunk. She lay horizontally so her legs hung off onto the floor where she'd tossed the coat of her uniform just before she had dropped into the bed. That had been as far as she'd gotten in undressing for bed aboard the _Wolfram_ when she and Fate had been given the cabin so that they could get some sleep and recover from their long two days without. Next to her in the dark was Fate who hadn't even taken her coat off.

"You're going to get wrinkles in your uniform," Nanoha said tiredly, her brain barely functioning.

"I was going to go-YAWN-say hi to Hayate," Fate mumbled.

"We're on her ship," Nanoha smiled. "She can't run away before we see her."

She slowly crawled up onto the bed and nudged Fate until the other woman moved so that they could both lie in the bed normally. Once they had done so, Fate curled toward her a little and fell completely asleep. Nanoha just smiled tiredly at the ceiling.

Everything had gone surprisingly well once the Imperial soldiers surrendered. None of the boys held prisoner in the lab building had been harmed and they were already being looked over by TSA doctors. But once everything was done it had been as if lead weights had been attached to her limbs. The past few days of constant work had caught up with her and Fate had been just as bad. So they had made there way to the _Wolfram._

When they had come aboard the ship she had been very thankful that Hayate had already had an empty cabin prepared for them. So they practically fled here in exhaustion. If Hayate needed them, Raising Heart would answer the call. If the universe was going to come to an end it would have to wait until she was rested enough to deal with it.

So for now, sleep.

******

Like any self respecting Marine, Howard Rhoads had awakened well before dawn broke over the base. He walked down the still dark corridor of the temporary housing unit he'd been given for the duration of the current crisis dressed in the PT uniform of a pair of running shorts and a gray shirt with the Marine logo emblazoned across the back. When he exited the low building in which his unit was one of a dozen, he stepped out into a very thin fog that clung to the dew damp grass at shin level. The air was filled with the sounds of thousands of soldiers as they woke up and started their morning exercise routines, those that had duty during these early hours did their work-outs during the full dark of night.

A group of soldiers came around a corner nearby on a morning jog and they approached his direction. The road runners for the group wore their bright, florescent orange vests and ran at either end of the small mob of maybe thirty men. Howard noted that they were all officers, some of whom he knew by name. Since he had already stretched in his room he attached himself to the back of the group as they passed and set himself to their pace.

There really was no need for rank during things like this and no one bothered to salute him and he likewise ignored the lack thereof. He glanced at the man running alongside the pack, the man organizing the run, and the guy waved five fingers. That meant the group still had five more kilometers to go on their planned run.

As his muscles loosened in the familiar work, his mind slowly started working smoother too. Specifically he was thinking about the rather astounding events of the previous night.

First, right around 10PM, his office phone had rung. He'd still been there that late since he had been trying to work on some of the logistical problems that were rapidly cropping up since the attack waves. While his phone ringing that late wasn't really cause for excitement, the man on the other end was. It had been the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Not a man who made casual calls to Majors during the night. Since he was used to initially fielding some calls for the General, he had figured that this was one such call. But no, it had turned out to be a conference call that had included himself and the General both.

The long drawn out conversation had been to inform them that this base, being on friendly terms with the TSAB so far, would be the official liaison point for the United States and that organization. Then they were informed that massive reinforcements were on the way.

Almost before the call had ended, those forces arrived. And he had watched with everyone else in the world as the UN used the arrival of twenty massive ships to announce the existence of the TSAB, magic and then a general explanation of recent events. Doubters had been quickly shouted down due the obvious evidence flying in Earth's skies. Then, of course, there came the outrage toward the invaders and also the crazies who thought all the new aliens were responsible. Howard thought it was pretty much par for his expectations of how people would respond to everything.

He himself had been more than impressed by the show of strength from the TSAB. Most of the ships had taken position near major world population centers. Standard operating procedure for the TSA he assumed was the reason why most of them hovered over a body of water instead of populated land, that way if something happened to the ship no one would be crushed underneath if it fell.

Two of the ships had taken position over the region in Japan that was covered by the enemy's barrier. He and Tiven had been informed that forces from this base would likely be called to aid the JSDF when those ships cracked that wall. The last ship, for whatever reason, had appeared over far eastern Russia.

"Sir!"

Howard pulled out of the formation when he saw a young lieutenant standing next to a truck as he waved the Major down. Howard slowed his jog until he came to a stop in front of the man. The man saluted and Howard did the same quickly. "You need something?" Howard inquired.

"Uh, yes sir," the soldier confirm. "The General sent me. He needs you to report to his office at your soonest convenience."

"Right, message received." Howard answered. "You're dismissed."

Forced to end his morning exercise early, he returned to his quarters and took a quick shower before donning his uniform. He then crossed across the base to the HQ offices. He found Tiven exactly where he'd been ordered to find him.

"I see they confirmed your new rank," Howard said to his superior when he saw the rank insignia of a full general was now pinned on the man's uniform.

"Yours too," Tiven snorted, holding up a small case that Howard knew contained his own insignia. "This will be quick but it's important."

Howard nodded his understanding.

"I received our specific orders just now," Tiven continued and smiled wryly. "You Major, have also received another kind of promotion. You're going to act as our, and by our I mean the United States as a whole, official liaison to the TSAB and you will coordinate things between them and myself along with the rest of the US military and government as necessary."

Howard stared at the General, waiting to see if it was a joke. "I'm _what?!" _ he demanded.

"Liaison," Tiven said with a grin. "It means you're a diplomat appointed by the military."

"I know what it means," Howard said acidly. "But why me? Why are you taking me off my combat command?"

"Because we just received a message from them this morning asking for your presence aboard one of their ships, so the Pentagon decided to eliminate two birds, that's why," Tiven answered. "We don't know why they want to talk to you, but it's already decided. Here."

He held out a sheet of paper and as Howard took the fax he recognized the document. He'd played guard duty at an embassy once so he'd seen the official papers declaring a person as being an official ambassador of the United States. It bore the seal of the Secretary of State as well as her signature and below that on another line was the signature of the President, something that wasn't at all usual. It meant he really had no choice about refusing the job.

"I know it's painful to be taken off from a combat position," Tiven said quietly as he read the legalise of the paper. "I went through it myself when they gave me this base. It's won't be the end of your career, so this might be a good thing for you. I will admit that it'll be more than a little vexing for me to replace you though."

"You don't know why they asked to see me?" Howard asked.

"Nope," Tiven said, shaking his head. "Not one thing. All we got was a request from someone named Commander Yagami. She asked that we allow you to come aboard her ship at our soonest convenience. "

"Ok, but why do I need this?" Howard argued, waving the sheet for emphasis. "Doesn't the State Department have loads of highly trained people for things like this? I'm a soldier, not a diplomat. I'd really like to avoid playing at politics."

"Howard, when you get to our ranks you don't have a choice," Tiven said disapprovingly. "It's the nature of the beast. I don't enjoy it either, but it's still a part of the job. The reason you've probably been assigned to this is probably because you and I were the 'first contact' people. The higher-ups probably think that since we didn't screw things up the first time, then we probably know what we're doing. They don't want to use someone unfamiliar to the TSA that might damage relations."

"Wonderful," Howard grumbled. "I feel awed by their confidence in me."

"Such subtle sarcasm," Tiven laughed. "But seriously, you should do pretty well."

"Ehg, fine," Howard sighed. "When do I leave?"

This time Tiven grinned. "Tonight! You have exactly twelve hours to pack your essentials and do any last paperwork. Then the TSAB will be sending someone to take you to the ship. By then all the official stuff from Washington will have arrived for you to take with you. Specifically it will be 1800 hours."

It took a second for the tight timetable to register in his mind. When it did he was shocked again. It meant that he had less then half a day to get ready.

"If that's the case then I need to get started," Howard said slowly. "Permission to leave sir?"

"Go ahead," Tiven said. But when he was almost to and out the door the general called his name. When he turned to see what he wanted Howard saw the widest grin yet on the General's face. "Congratulations, Ambassador Rhoads"

A Howard go do was to snort and say, "Thank you sir," and close the door behind him.

* * *

Author notes: A little shorter this time, but I didn't want to group what's coming next with this chapter. Also thanks for all the reviews and feedback, it's greatly appreciated.

Nanoha89-san: I'm glad you enjoyed it. The canon characters will likely be getting a little more time for now. And by hooking up did you mean Lushia and Rein? I don't think that that possibility actually occurred to me. I was tempted to use the new full-size Rein as she is shown in the new Force manga, but maybe I'll keep her to her normal size since that seems to be preferred.

Sect: Your feedback is great. I just see Alice as being very smart, but way overly confident in her own abilities. She just doesn't understand the concept of pacing herself, at least for now anyways As for Azusa, yeah that's pretty much where I was going with her. I'm still tossing around ideas for her family, but that is the basic idea, she's too embarrassed to tell Alice though. And about the spelling and grammar errors, I recently lost my proofreader/editor so I've had to go without for the last couple of chapters. I apologize for the jarring ones.

KKnd2: Glad you enjoyed it. Yeah, I think I said this during Lushia's explanation, but she's a very early stage prototype. She was considered a failed product and as such she was simply used for testing. Her failure is that she permanently attaches to her master in a sort of symbiotic relationship. And Yeah, Hirtolia is in a really bad place after losing the support for their civilization and the general mess of their political situation.

GeshronTyler: There's something I was planning on using those asteroids for later.


	7. Rest and Play

Major, and now Ambassador, Howard Rhoads stood calmly with his arms clasped behind his back as he stood on the evening sun baked tarmac. His eyes shaded by his crisp white cap, he watched on as an enormous C-130 Hercules transport rolled to a halt under the direction of the base's ground crew. While he looked calm on the outside, he was anything but that on the inside.

On that transport were all of the official papers and other legal paraphernalia that would consign him to his new, very much unwanted position. His current appearance was a case in point of why he knew he wouldn't enjoy his coming duties. He was standing in full Marine Blues, complete with the Marmaluke sword that was only worn for the most formal of occasions at his hip. The fact that he was wearing it now to begin his position as Ambassador of the United States to the TSAB was a bad omen.

The turbine engines of the aircraft sputtered as they we turned off and the propellers spun down. At the same time, the rear hatch hummed as its hydraulic door was lowered down to the asphalt where it settled with a dull metallic thunk. Almost immediately the grounds crew swarmed the thing, throwing blocks under the wheels and securing things. After a couple moments, a youngish looking woman walked out of the open hatch and looked around inquisitively and intently. She wore a formal suit coat and skirt and pulled a rolling suitcase behind her that had a briefcase strapped to it. In her other hand was another briefcase, both of utilitarian fake leather.

She spotted him after a couple seconds and started making her way over. When she got closer he saw that she really did look fairly young. She was a petite woman that only came up to his shoulders and had short, well groomed brown hair. Her cheerful, smiling face with a spattering of freckles looked to belong to someone that was in her upper twenties or very low thirties. When she reached him she set her suitcase on its wheels and grinned broadly at him.

"Major Rhoads?" she inquired in hopeful tone.

Howard sighed. Yep this was it. "Yes ma'am, that's me." He held out his hand and when she gave hers he saw that they were positively tiny. He made sure not to crush her fingers in his own.

"Lisa Denning, US State Department," she said in introduction.

He nodded, "That's about what I figured you were."

Releasing his hand she immediately held out the lone briefcase toward him. "Before anything else happens I've been instructed to make sure that this is in your possession. It contains all your official documents as well as all formal instructions and explanations as to what your duties are and the expectations of the State Department and the interim United States Congress. The lock is currently set to the last four digits of your SSN, but you are very heavily advised to change it to a more secure, personal code at your soonest opportunity."

She let out a long breath as she reached the end of what was probably a practiced speech given to her by someone else. "Are there any questions you have before we leave?"

"What do you mean by 'we' Ms. Denning?" he asked, "I thought it was just me?".

"Oh? Was that not explained to you?" the woman asked unnecessarily. "I am your personal assistant for this endeavor and should a formal embassy be established with the Time-Space Administration Bureau, I will then become your chief-of-staff."

Howard had to take another calming breath. A staff! "This just keeps getting better," he murmured to himself lowly. "Alright then," he said in a louder voice and a wry tone. "Does that mean you're here to make sure I don't screw things up?"

The woman flinched visibly and her smile dropped for a second before returning. "I suppose that's what you could call it," she conceded. "But I don't plan on spying on you though."

"At least your honest," Howard chuckled. Underneath the arm of his coat his watched beeped twice to mark the arrival of 1800 hours. That meant their visitors should be here shortly. "Do you have everything you need?" he asked, tapping his substantially larger duffle bag with his toe. "You're packed a little light."

"Oh, I'll be just fine," Lisa answered brightly with a friendly smile. "I'm about as far from a clothes horse as it's possible for someone with my kind of job to be."

He was about to ask if she wanted to wait inside out of the hot evening sun when he heard a commotion from the personnel around the aircraft. Both he and Lisa looked of and when they saw that everyone was looking up into the sky he did as well. There, about fifty feet up, were two men in long white coats carrying staves as they descended slowly to the ground. They hadn't been in sight moments before. When they touched down they both looked right at him and Lisa.

"Are you Major Howard Rhoads and his assistant," the first of the men asked in a professional tone.

"Yes we are," Howard responded.

"Good, that keeps things simple," The man said with an easy going smile. "We are here to transport you to our Commander's ship. Are you both ready to go?"

Howard raised an inquisitive eyebrow at Ms. Denning and she nodded her readiness. "Looks like we are," Howard said. Then he looked at the two speculatively. "May I ask just how the two of you are bringing us there?"

"You will be teleported there," the second man explained. "We actually aren't going to be doing anything ourselves; the ship will be taking care of all the hard work. In actuality, we aren't needed at all except to make sure you know what's happening to you. The commander figured you might not take being whisked away unannounced all too well."

"No, I probably wouldn't have," Howard agreed with a smile of his own. "But I suppose we are ready as we're gonna be."

"Good, just stand side-by side with your gear if you would please," instructed the first man. "Thank you, now I'll just…done!"

What was 'done' quickly became apparent when a glowing circle of sigils appeared beneath their feet. While he could be a bit blasé about having magic done to him, Lisa was another matter. He watched in open amusement as her eyes bugged out and she let out a small gasp. Before he could do more than grin however, the light overtook them until it became all consuming. Then, as fast as it started, it was over.

They stood in a room that seemed to be ripped straight from a sci-fi movie. They stood on a raised platform in a large, very well lit chamber that had metal walls like a ship and it all looked very clean and modern. As he was looking a group six men, dressed like the ones before, came in. They walked up onto the other side of the platform, only giving them smiling nods of greeting. One man raised his hand and a control panel appeared from nowhere. He tapped a few times, and then stood back. A second later they all vanished.

Howard let out a silent, impressed whistle at the sight of such blatant, advanced technology and magic. Next to him Ms. Denning was breathing in quick pants that said she had been more than a little unnerved. Then the hatch opened again and two familiar women walked in. Both wore friendly expressions like they had before but instead of the strange garments they wore before, now they had much more normal looking military uniforms.

"Commander Takamatchi, Agent Testarossa," he said, greeting them formally. "Thank you for inviting me; this is my assistant, Lisa Denning."

"Nice to meet you," Lisa said with a cheerful smile.

"And you," Commander Takamatchi answered in a friendly manner. She and her partner both gave their names to Lisa and Howard looked on patiently as they got the formalities over with. Then both women looked at them again. "I know this may seem odd to you," Ms. Takamatchi said then. "But can both of just refer to us by out first names? It will save time since both of our last names are long, and in the TSA we're a little less formal about such things."

Howard grimaced mentally for a moment. It was ingrained by long habit to call people by their last names or ranks. "I suppose I can do that…Nanoha," he said smoothly, if a little uncomfortably. "This is your ship after all."

"Actually we aren't part of its crew or command chain at all," Fate clarified. "A close friend and colleague of ours is the Division Commander of the ships that just arrived yesterday and this is her flagship. But we asked to be the ones to greet you since you've already met us."

"It's much appreciated," Howard replied.

"Good," Nanoha said. "Now, let's drop your things off in your provided quarters before we get too far ahead of ourselves."

He and Lisa followed them out of the transport chamber and into the ship proper. The corridor was also well lit and clean and when they passed other people they all gave them small nods of greeting and a smile. They didn't seem at all surprised to see people in strange uniforms aboard their ship. He figured their CO must have informed them of his arrival. Lisa he saw looked bit like a young girl who was seeing her youthful daydreams turned into a reality, her smile was huge and her eyes were as wide as they would go.

After a short distance the walls changed. Instead of just being a plain blue, a thick darker blue stripe went down both sides at about waist height. After a moment he also saw that nameplates appeared next to hatches. This he figured must be the crew quarters. They stopped between two such hatches, one on either side. One was labeled Guest A, and the other Guest B.

"Major," Nanoha said, getting his attention. "Room A is yours for the duration of your stay aboard. To open the door, just place your palm on it."

He did so and tried not to take it back when a glowing circle appeared around his hand. A second later a soft female voice said. "Identity imprinted," and the door slid aside. Inside was a very small room that was filled almost entirely by a bunk. It reminded him of his quarters aboard an aircraft carrier he had served on. Across the corridor, Fate was giving the same instructions to Lisa. He walked into the room and set his duffle and briefcase onto the bed. He also unbelted his sword and laid it across the bunk. When he returned he saw Lisa had done the same with her stuff, she stood calmly next to Fate with a patient smile.

"What now?" he asked. "You guys asked for me, but I have no idea as to why I'm here." Lisa gave him a 'shut-up!' look but he ignored it.

"I asked you to come because I fulfilled a promise for you," Nanoha said, this time with a very pleased smile. "The ambassador thing we set up, because it makes things simple and convenient. We'll take care of two things at once. Now follow me again please."

Again they walked through the ship corridors. After a short trek they entered an elevator and they went down a couple of levels. When they exited the wall stripe was a soothing green color. On the floor though were two more stripes set about three feet apart. They were the yellow and black stripes of warning.

He wondered about them curiously until they passed by a double wide doorway with the label EMERGANCY emblazoned in bold letters over it. The warning strips T'd off into it. That's when he figured out where they were, they were in a medical ward. They turned around a corner and standing in the middle of the corridor was a tall, kindly looking woman in a doctor's coat and with short blonde hair who looked to be waiting for them. She smiled largely at their two escorts.

"Nanoha! Fate!" She moved forward in a couple of quick steps and then gave both women a quick hug. Bemused by the greeting, Howard shared a look with Lisa who just shrugged at him. "Why didn't you two at least come and say hello?" the woman continued. "I heard you've been on board since last night."

"Hehe, sorry Shamal," Nanoha said in a chagrined tone. "We both kind of passed out when we got to our room. We didn't have the energy to say hello to anyone. We only just talked to Hayate shortly before these two arrived."

"Passed out?" Howard thought to himself. "Wonder what happened."

"Overworking yourself already?" the woman, Shamal, said in teasing and yet semi-serious tone.

"It was an emergency!" Nanoha pleaded. "And besides, Fate did most of the hard work."

Shamal looked at Fate and Fate gave the woman a blank unreadable look.

"Hmmph, somehow I don't thinks that's entirely true," Shamal said with a small laugh. "But we aren't here to complain about you."

"No we are not," Nanoha agreed very quickly. She looked over at him. "Actually we are here for you Major."

Shamal nodded her agreement. "Just come right inside."

She moved to a hatch and he saw it was labeled: Containment and Observation. She waved a hand in front of the door and after a second it gave a soft chime and then opened. They all followed in behind her and entered into a small anteroom with one wall made almost entirely of black glass with the exception of a small door. Shamal walked to the glass wall and a control panel appeared under her fingers. Other windows full of information opened up around the first. She tapped in a rapid sequence of commands and then the wall wasn't black anymore. Slowly light seemed to appear until he saw another larger room lay beyond the glass.

"This wall only allows light and sound to travel through in one direction," Shamal said as she watched with them. "It lets us observe the room's occupants without disturbing their rest."

As the lights slowly came up more he was able to make out two hospital beds within. Each had a figure lying in it, both female. At first he didn't recognize anything, but then the figure on the right bed shifted with a small moan in protest to the light. She turned on her side and he felt jolt.

"Alice?" he said softly. He hadn't allowed himself to worry about his daughter. He was a professional soldier and his responsibilities had been great in the last week, so he had pushed his paternal instincts back where they couldn't interfere. Now they came rushing forward in a sense of such overwhelming relief that he felt a little weak in the knees. "Is it really her?" he asked, demanding confirmation.

"Yes, it's her." Nanoha said with a smile that said she understood him "I told you we'd get her back to you."

"So you did," Howard said with an almost giddy laugh. "Can I see her?" Then he remembered that they were in the medical facilities. "Is she alright?"

"For the most part, she's perfectly fine," Shamal said. "She just suffered from a case of severe exhaustion compounded by the beginnings of malnourishment. Both easily treated as you can see as well as all of her minor abrasions. We've had both those girls here under a spell that keeps them in a deep restful sleep and all through the day we've given them nutrient IV feeds. I just lifted that spell."

"But why the observation room?" he asked.

"That's because this room has heavy shields," Shamal said with a small grin. "Both those girls have strong magic now so we were considering the rest of the ship."

Howard heard the 'now' qualifier, but she was just happy to see his daughter was safe. "What did you mean by 'for the most part'?"

"Wellll," Shamal said slowly. "It's probably best you see for yourself. It's not something that can't be fixed, but you might be upset by it initially."

That sent a shaft of worry through him. "Can I go in and see her?" he said again.

"Yes, just let me unlock it."

Shamal tapped another command into her control screen and a click came from the door. Then, impatiently, he followed the woman into the room trailed by the others. Their footsteps resounded thunderously in the very still and quiet room but he didn't worry about that, he just walked straight toward his daughter. About halfway there the white sheet over her body ruffled and a small form crawled out from under Alice's cradling left arm. He stopped in confusion and the others stopped with him. He heard a clear, high gasp come from Lisa

Coming out of the sheet was a very small woman no taller than his forearm was long with long blue hair wearing an equally tiny set of baggy pajamas. The woman crawled onto a clear space on the mattress, then sat back on her heels and yawned hugely. She blinked for a second then turned toward them. As soon as her blue eyes laid on his they narrowed suspiciously. Then she vanished only to appear two feet on front of his face in mid-air with one arm pointed toward him. An ominous blue light grew in her tiny hand.

"Who are you?" she demanded crossly. "My mistress is still resting!"

He was about to reply angrily at the whatever it was, but Nanoha pushed forward in front of him and held out a placating hand as she spoke in a quick rush..

"Wait Lushia, this is Alice's father. He's just concerned about her."

"Her father?" the woman said in a curious tone, all trace of her hostility gone. She dropped her arm down to her side and the light disappeared.

"Yes, her father," Howard said a bit gruffly. "Now, whoever you are let me by."

"I think not," the tiny woman countered. "As I said, she is still resting."

"I'm not going to try and wake her," Howard said in exasperation. "I just want—"

"uuuugghn," he cut off and everyone in the room, tiny woman included, looked toward Alice who had groaned aloud as she turned onto her back and cracked her eyes a tiny bit. "Azu?"

At first he thought it was just a nonsense word from being barely awake, but it brought a stirring from the second bed. The other girl, the one Howard had pretty much ignored once he saw his daughter, sat up slowly and he saw she was wearing a garishly orange set of clothes. She blinked in the light but then her eyes shot open. "Alice?" the girl gasped out his daughters name with obvious worry and practically threw herself out of the bed. Before anyone could do anything to stop her, she crossed the space between her bed and Alice's. Howard expected the fierce little woman to go and do something to stop the girl but she did nothing except watch closely.

"Alice, are you still alright?" the girl asked again, this time leaning right at his daughter's bedside. Her concern was obvious.

"Huh, Azu?" Alice said, sounding much more coherent. She blinked up at the unnamed girl and Howard's eyes widened in surprise when Alice threw her left arm up and hugged the girl to her and they embraced for a long moment. "I'm definitely alright," Alice said in a warm tone he had never heard before. "In fact I feel pretty good. But thanks for worrying about me."

Howard marveled at the sight. Alice had never really been the physical contact type, just like him. Neither of them had ever been ones to engage in physical greetings and hugs. Alice released the girl and then looked about the room in confusion. Her eyes widened and her cheeks reddened. Then she looked right at him.

"Dad?" she said in a stunned voice. "How did you get here? And why in full uniform?"

*000000*

Alice stared in momentary confusion as she stared at her father. He stood there in full Blues in the company of a number of people she didn't know. She did however recognize the woman, Nanoha, and Lushia of course.

"I had him brought here," Nanoha told her by way of an explanation. "He seemed worried about you when I met him and I promised to return you to him. And he has also been made your country's representative to us."

"Cool," Alice said happily, she worried a bit about how her father had taken her disappearance.. Then she looked at Azusa who was standing next to the bed looking really embarrassed. "Azu, this is my dad! As you can probably see, he's a Marine. Dad, this is my very close friend, Azusa Higa. She was my cellmate and fellow captive."

"Ah, nice to meet you," Azusa said quickly. "I'm sorry I didn't see everyone standing here. I kind of got carried away." She colored a little. "Alice is…important to me."

"It's not a problem, I'm Howard Rhoads," Dad said pleasantly, shaking her small hand. "It's very nice to meet you too. Feel; free to worry about Alice all you want, she probably needs it." He gave a small chuckle and Azusa visibly relaxed and gave a return smile.

Alice looked at the small women floating in the air and she grinned. "Did you already meet Lushia, Dad?"

"We met," Lushia, said with a dry, playful grin. "He was going to pester you so I almost chastised him severely."

Alice laughed. "Lushia, he's my dad, it's his job to pester me."

Lushia just shrugged and smiled. Dad gave her a very familiar look of parental exasperation.

Alice pushed down with her arm and scooted back in the bed as she sat upright. This let her lay back against the wall. As she did so the sheet fell down her body and saw she was still in her prisoner garb. But that wasn't what drew her dad's eyes. As soon as it was clear Dad saw that Alice's right arm ended in an ugly fold of skin at the elbow. Alice, not seeing his panic, looked down at herself.

"Wow," she said in tone of wonder. "All the scrapes and cuts are gone."

Dad turned his head toward the doctor and got a confirming nod from the woman, Alice still didn't know who she was. . When he looked back, he saw that Azusa was looking at that partial arm sadly.

"A-Alice, what happened to your arm?" He said in a carefully controlled voice.

"Oh!" Alice said, blushing a little. "Sorry dad. I kinda screwed up when those guys tried to grab me. I fought back and they let me have it. I got beat up pretty badly. Azusa here cleaned me up really well though." Azusa blushed furiously at being mentioned but Alice just gave her a grin. "That was when we were on this ship of theirs. But apparently my arm was too messed up. They cut it off while I was unconscious. I know it looks bad and horridly ugly, but it doesn't really hurt, it just feels funny every little while."

"The amputation was done cleanly," the doctor said, speaking up. "Whatever method they used kept her remaining flesh uninfected and we gave her a dose of antibiotics just in case. In a weeks time she'll probably be healthy enough for us to treat it fully."

Dad looked like he was going to ask what she meant, but Alice beat him to it.

"You can fix it?" She asked in a hopeful tone.

"Certainly," the doctor chuckled. "Such things are common enough on Mid-Childa. There are actually a few different options open to you. The first method would be growing you a new arm in place. Meaning you would wear the growth unit on your stump until it was complete. This takes a while but it nearly guarantees that there won't be any rejection of the new limb. The second is the implantation of what's called a growth clone. We grow the arm rapidly off your body and then attach it. This however carries a significant risk of rejection which can get pretty ugly. The third and last option is to attach a bio-cybernetic arm. This is done quickly and can be customized, but unlike your real arm it would require periodic maintenance and if it was damaged it wouldn't heal itself."

"It's really that simple Doctor Shamal?" Dad asked as Alice thought about what the doctor had told them.

"Pretty much, yes," Shamal said kindly. "The procedure for any of the three options is fairly straight forward and I'm qualified to for all of them and so are my medics. All it would take is for a set of measurements to be taken and the necessary equipment."

"Can I have a vote?" Lushia said to Alice, drawing everyone's attention. Alice saw and felt through their link, that Lushia very much wanted an input on this decision.

"Of course," Alice said, taking the little woman seriously. "What do you think?"

"I'd say to go with the third option, the cyborg arm."

Alice and everyone else all blinked at her. "Why?" the question came from multiple mouths almost simultaneously.

The woman floated through the air to Alice and pointed down at her left arm. Alice raised it, knowing what the woman wanted and pulled her sleeve up. The device under the garment drew noises of surprise from everyone except the doctor. The young woman with dad was looking at her with avid interest. The two mages wore expressions of professional curiosity.

"What is that thing?" Dad asked, staring at the onyx serpent coiled around Alice's arm with its gem gleaming in the light.

"It's a device," this came from Nanoha who looked at it with a look of clear understanding, as if something she'd been wondering about had been answered.

"A device?" dad said. Then he seemed to remember something. "You mean like that staff you carry? And that large axe Ms. Testarossa has?"

"Yes," Nanoha confirmed. She reached up and pulled a cord around her neck and drew a pink sphere up and out of her uniform. "This is my device in its storage form. When I need to use it I bring it out into its staff form. That thing on Alice's arm is also a device in its storage form." She looked at Lushia. "Is that you?" Dad looked confused both by that question and the fact that Alice herself clearly wasn't surprised by all this.

"Yes and no," Lushia said, waggling her hand in the air. "My core intelligence lies in the gem permanently emplaced within Alice's chest. That device on her arm doesn't have its own intelligence so it acts as my back up. Other than that though, I don't have any control over it. Once I link with a master, like Alice is now, that person has complete control. I simply act as an administrator for it after that point."

"Wait, what do you mean by inside her?" Dad asked.

"There's a blue gem thing imbedded in my sternum dad," Alice said calmly. "It's stuck there until I die. It's kind of like Lushia's brain. And before you start freaking out about this, Lushia was the one who helped us escape. Once we joined, she showed me how to use my magic and we busted out. I trust her implicitly."

Alice stared hard into her father's concerned eyes and made him see that she was absolutely serious about this. "Dad, Lushia will be with me for the rest of my life. I owe her my life for what she did. From now on we are partners. This is not optional." For a long moment they just stared at each other and then dad let out a sigh.

"Alright Alice, I'll leave this alone for now. But I would appreciate a full explanation at some point."

Alice grinned. "Sure thing," She glanced at Azusa and smiled even more broadly. Azu just smiled and continued to blush, obviously not wanting any attention to be drawn to her again.

"Uhm, excuse me?"

Alice, followed by everyone else in the small room, looked at the woman that had come in with dad. Dad noticed her questioning look.

"Sorry Alice," Dad said. "The government decided to make me play at being ambassador. This young lady is my assigned assistant, Lisa Denning. I just met her today so I don't know much about her."

The woman blushed at being referred to as a 'young lady' but she plowed on. "Could someone please explain to me what's going on? I understand that this girl," she gestured at Alice, "is your daughter. But what's all the rest of this about?"

"Hehe, this probably does sound a bit confusing since you don't know what's going on," Nanoha chuckled.

"I can explain some of it," Alice said, speaking up. "I'm Alice by the way, nice to meet yah!" Another hand shake was exchanged. "About a week ago, when I was hanging out in the park back home, a bunch of guys tried to abduct me because I could use magic. Since I had figured out a little bit how to use my magic by that time, I tried to fight back and then run for it. That turned out to be an incredibly stupid thing to do. I got beat to a pulp, abducted anyways and then used for the experiments of the Imperial guys along with a number of other unfortunate girls."

She saw Nanoha, Doctor Shamal, and the third woman were all paying close attention now. "I met Azusa here on the ship we were on briefly. She patched me up and treated my wounds. She wouldn't even let me look at my messed up arm before they took it off." Azu blushed red again at her fond glance. "As you can see, we made for awesome roommates. Then we got taken to that director…"

When she explained it all out, even telling about fighting from the rooftops, her audience was staring at her and Azu with varying looks of wonder and consternation. Azusa was pink cheeked from the rather glowing praise Alice had given for her part in things.

"You _fought_ them?" Dad said, sounding incredulous.

"Uh-huh, _we _did," Alice returned, emphasizing that she hadn't been alone. Now back on her preferred shoulder seat, Lushia grinned proudly, apparently more than happy with their results. Azusa had sat down on the bed with her and she wore a small smile too. Alice just wished she had her arm on that side back so she could hug her again to show her appreciation.

"I'm still a bit confused," Lisa said again, this time in a thoughtful tone. "What do you all mean by devices and stuff?"

Nanoha moved forward to field this one. "A device is a tool and a partner to a mage. It makes using magic substantially easier and takes care of many of the calculations that must be done. Many of them, like my own Raising Heart and Fate's Bardiche have an AI. Like people they grow and learn over time and become ever better partners to their mage. They become as inseparable to a mage as a family member."

"But hers looks radically different," Lisa pointed at Alice. "Doesn't that mean she has two?"

"Kind of," Nanoha agreed. "Lushia is what's called a Unison device, we have many records about them but we've only seen three actual examples of them now. But like Alice one of them is also paired with a non-intelligent device that the mage wields. The permanent bond between Alice and Lushia _is_ unusual, but not entirely so."

"Alice explained that," Lushia said impatiently. "I was a prototype; a 'failed' prototype specifically. My bond with Alice is about a close as we can get without literally becoming a new entity. We can share emotions and thought communication with ease. If Alice doesn't regret her decision to link with me, than I certainly don't. "

Alice smiled at her diminutive friend. "So Lushia, why do you want me to get the cyborg arm instead of the real ones?"

"Because, if they're of a similar type to the ones that existed when I was on Belka it can be tied into the systems of the device on your arm," Lushia raised a pointed finger as if she was trying to sell the idea. "It would allow for self regeneration and repairs while also keeping a limb that is more resilient than your flesh and blood arm."

"But would I be able to feel anything with it?" Alice asked the doctor who looked very intrigued by Lushia's explanation. Her lack of instant rejection boded well for the idea.

"Oh yes, of course you would," Shamal said quickly. "With modern bio-cybernetics you can hardly tell the difference from the outside. It would look just like a real one and function accordingly."

"Then maybe I really should go with that," Alice mused aloud. She raised her stump and looked at it. "It really would be nice to have an arm there again. What do you think Azu?"

Azu just smiled. "It's your arm Alice. Not mine."

She looked over and saw that Nanoha and Fate where talking quietly to each other and that Nanoha seemed to be telling something exciting to the other woman. Nanoha saw her looking on.

"Sorry," Nanoha laughed, "I was just telling Fate about how I met you."

"I was just curious about how your device looks while activated," Fate explained.

"I could just show you," Alice said offhandedly. "It's not like it's a lot of trouble to do so, right?" At this she saw something in her dad's and Lisa's eyes, they wanted to know too. Well, after her story she didn't blame them. She herself was insanely curious about these TSAB people and their magic and technology too.

"Not in here you're not!" Shamal said suddenly and sternly. "This is a medical ward, not a practice room." She went to a table set against the far wall and opened a drawer. She removed two plastic bracelets and brought them over. She handed one each to her and Azusa. "If you are going to do it then we need to go to a more heavily shielded room," she continued, "and both of you need to wear these limiters while in the regular spaces ship."

"What do they do?" Alice said, taking hers.

"They limit the maximum output of your magic," Shamal explained. "And in your case Azusa, it'll keep your natural ability from setting off every security alarm in the ship. Your current output is just high enough to trip them."

Azusa slipped hers on easily, but since she only had one hand Alice had some difficulty until Azu leaned over and helped her do the snap. As she was doing so Shamal went to a cupboard and took out two pairs of soft slippers from a stack of them. Alice wondered at this until she swung her legs out from under the sheets and saw her feet were bare. Then she remembered that she and Azu had been out in the rain in their shoes so they had to have been soaked. When she put the white slippers on she laughed and pointed at her and Azusa's feet.

"With these orange prisoner uniforms and white sandals on we look like a couple of orange cream-sicles."

"I have some smocks if you want to change," Shamal said in an amused tone. Then Alice got what was so funny about it and grinned as well. Hospital smocks left you _very_ exposed.

"No thanks," Alice laughed. "I think I'll keep these until I get some real clothes."

"There are plenty of spare TSA uniforms and gear in the ship's storage," Fate said with a smile. "We can get you something from there."

"Good, now let's go!" Nanoha said in voice tinged with excitement.

After Shamal shut down the room and locked up, Alice walked next to Azusa as Nanoha and Fate led them through the ship. Their procession drew interested glances but no one they passed stopped to ask what they were doing. They took an elevator down a level and stepped out into a strange room.

It was filled strange machines of unknown purposes and along the walls were wooden or plastic looking mock weapons in fitted mounts. There were dozens of different types of staves, pole arms, swords and axes. Some looked familiar while others were much different than anything she'd seen in a history book or in her sensei's training facility back on the island. It looked a bit like a war history museum had been looted of its mock ups.

"This way," Nanoha said, walking across the room to a very heavy looking door. It also appeared to be armored. She raised a hand and entered in a code into the keypad that appeared. The door slid open smoothly and they walked down a short corridor that made her skin tingle, the hall was filled with magic and from her guess it was probably a shield or barrier. At the other end was another thick door which opened at their approach, but the one behind them snapped shut at the same time.

Past the door was a large white walled room with on oddly soft textured floor. It was about the size and dimensions of a tennis court and the walls were covered by something hazy and cloudy. The door when it shut was covered by the same cloudiness. Alice reached out a curious hand to touch it and her hand stopped dead against a surface that lay four inches away from the door.

"This is a practice room for magic and sparing," Fate explained as they all walked further into the room. Her voice echoed in the large empty chamber. "It's shielded heavily enough for Nanoha or me to go all out against it without cracking it. It also has holographic projectors in the walls to generate different environments on a very small scale for specific missions the ship may be tasked to perform."

Alice marveled at the display of technology. Everything she saw about this place impressed and intrigued her. She really, really wanted a chance to look things over.

"Alice?"

Snapping out of her daydreaming she saw everyone was looking at her expectantly. Even her father and his assistant were looking anticipatory. Throughout her retelling of what had happened with the Imperial guys, he had grown increasingly curious about it all. He was a professional soldier so that wasn't too much of a surprise, but she did find it amusing.

"Yes?" she answered Nanoha's question.

"You can start whenever you're ready."

"Yeah!" Lushia enthused from her shoulder. "Let's show 'em! I haven't gotten a chance to show off in centuries!"

Laughing, she gestured for everyone to step back and away from her; everyone except for Azu, who stayed standing behind her. Alice could almost feel her friend worrying about her. Turning her head she smiled at her. "Azu, I'll be fine, I'm all rested up now. It won't bother me."

"You're sure?" Azu said with a serious, raised eyebrow.

"Yes, so go stand with the others. You can explain what's going on since you've seen it once already. If I pass out then you can mother me and give me all the I-told-you so's you want."

"It's not like I actually know that much though," Azu said wryly. "But I can do that." She walked over and stood next to dad on the opposite side of Lisa."

"Ready Lushia?"

"Yep, so do it!"

Feeling a little excited herself now; Alice held her arm up in front of her. In her mind she brought a torrent of magic up from the depths of that place inside her and called for her device. "**Storm Chains! Awaken!"**

*oooooo*

Howard walked with the others a short distance away from his daughter before they all turned to watch. He felt a great anticipation at being able to see what had changed Alice so much in a few short weeks; for he knew that she really had changed somehow.

While even before this she had always been a very self-assured person with a positive outlook on things, now she seemed to be even more so. Even the way she stood now said she felt strong and confident. She had lost an arm and had been experimented upon, and yet still she come out of it like this. Even the way she spoke was subtly different.

She was proud that she could use magic and when she looked at that tiny woman it was the same look he had seen men give to fellow soldiers that they had fought beside. It said she trusted Lushia implicitly with her life. And perhaps she had reason to since their minds and bodies were literally connected at the deepest levels.

And Alice's behavior toward this Azusa girl was strange too. He had always worried about Alice's loner ways and lack of close friends, but now here she was looking at Azusa as if they had been friends for a decade or more. Their obvious worry about each others well being was much different to what he was used to. He suspected that separating the two of them would be like fighting a war, fierce and painful for any involved. And he was sure he had only sent he surface of their relationship.

He was somewhat surprised however when Alice shooed Azusa over with the rest of them. As soon as everyone was settled Alice grinned broadly and held up her arm. Again he saw that strange serpent of stone when her sleeve slipped down.

"**Storm Chains! Awaken!"**

Alice's voice carried the strict, strong tone of command. As a military officer it was something he himself used often. Her voice also reverberated strangely in the closed room. Almost as soon as the last syllable exited her mouth, a blue sphere of light engulfed her in an instant. There was a distinct crackling sound and the air smelled slightly of ozone from the open discharge of raw power. The light ball roiled and seethed with the magic it contained.

After a very short period of time, only a few seconds, the light seemed to drift away like smoke and then it vanished into the air. When it vanished, his eyes widened at his daughter's appearance. She had a heavy black coat on over a skin tight black body suit and all of it was metallically trimmed in silver. The strange skirt and silvery cape were especially eye drawing. In her chest, thrusting up through the black material was a gem that throbbed with an inner light and he understood then that that had to be Lushia. But most of all, Alice seemed to radiate a sense of power and open threat. There was a look on her face that he couldn't read, but it sent a shiver down his spine, not of fear, but of something he couldn't define. Her eyes seemed harder and fiercer now even with the small smile on her lips. Lushia sat on her shoulder still but the tiny woman's face was almost predatory now. It was as if this was her element, riding with her master into battle. In that moment he felt strong pulse of fatherly pride in daughter. He knew he was seeing Alice's future.

Next to him he saw Lisa staring in open awe at the transformation and blatant use of magic. Azusa on his other side was simply smiling in a way that said she was happy for her friend and happy to be a part of this. The other women, Fate and Nanoha, both looked intrigued and bore expressions of open professional curiosity. Shamal simply watched on calmly.

Alice's eyes flicked to his and she turned to face him straight on. "How's it look dad?" Her smile now, was friendlier again.

"I've gotta say, I'm really impressed," he admitted, making sure to show it on his face. "But how are those weird panels of the skirt staying in place? There's nothing holding them."

"No idea, magic maybe?" Alice laughed mischievously, obviously enjoying the moment. She looked over at the TSA women. "What about you guys?"

Nanoha walked forward and did a small circle around Alice. She murmured to herself as she walked and then stopped again right in front. "It's a very heavy set of armor and definitely Belkan in design," she observed in a thinking tone. "Definitely not made for speed."

"I was never a very fast runner," Alice said with a shrug. "But it doesn't hinder my movements much at all. I don't feel slowed down."

Nanoha just nodded, accepting the answer as she backed away a few steps. When she was about ten paces away she suddenly raised a hand, pointer finger outstretched. At the tip of that finger was a small ball of pink light the size of a marble. It shot through the air and Alice squawked in surprise. In front of her a large triangular form snapped into existence and the sphere vanished when it struck a barrier of glowing blue light that emanated from the spell form. When it went away again he saw Alice hadn't moved, but she was looking at Nanoha warily.

"What was that?" Azusa said with bristling anger. Howard was shocked by seeing the girl who had been fairly calm and quiet so far, flaring up this way. But it was obvious to him how much she cared about Alice. "Why'd you attack her?"

"I didn't really attack her Azusa," Nanoha explained calmly. "Even if that had hit her she would have only felt a tiny bit of warmth at the impact site and maybe a pinching sensation. I'm a combat instructor; so I know how to make training bolts properly."

Howard felt his eyebrows rise at this information. Combat instructors were usually tough and grizzled veterans who knew the trade of soldiering better than anyone. If this woman was such a person for the TSAB mages, than her abilities must really be something. He notched up his opinion of her accordingly. This information however, didn't seem to placate Azusa any. She still glared at the woman.

"It's alright Azusa," Alice said cheerfully, no longer worried at all. "She just surprised me, that's all. No harm done."

Azusa let out a sigh, but it appeared that Alice's words did was Nanoha's had not. She immediately calmed down again but he noticed that she was watching Nanoha a little closer.

"That wasn't bad," Nanoha commented with approval. "A quick reflex response and you did it without any gestures or words."

Alice smiled and made a throwing away gesture that she used to show that she didn't consider something very important. "Lushia said using hand motions would betray my intentions so I'm making an effort not to use them, as for not saying anything, for some reason I don't seem to need them to form defensive spells. Even the more complicated ones Lushia showed me don't need them." She walked toward Azusa and the girl seemed to understand what was going to happen because she turned to face Alice and smiled. She seemed very pleased to be directly involved.

For a second Alice just stared but then he saw a translucent blue glow slide up and over Azusa's skin and clothes. Then a multitude of those triangles appeared in seemingly random places in the air around the girl. They floated for a few seconds, and then it all faded away as if it sank into the air.

"Is that what you used on her before?" Nanoha asked. "You made a set of shields and a barrier that can be placed on another person and still allow them to move around?"

"Yeah, pretty much," Alice confirmed. "But I didn't make it, Lushia did. I only invented five spells before she showed up and taught me these and none of mine were like these."

For some reason Azusa laughed at the comment and covered her mouth. When everyone, Alice included looked at her to see what was so amusing, she blushed and said, "I was just thinking of Alice's cooking spell, she used it to light fires and to annoy Juden and his men."

Howard grinned and laughed himself," so you were a pyromaniac prisoner? It's a wonder you survived at all!"

"Didn't you have a weapon?" Nanoha interjected, looking at Alice in a way that suggested that something was missing. "You used one on me when I surprised you on the roof."

"You mean these?" Alice grinned. Howard blinked as a thick silvery chain appeared out of nowhere several feet in front of Alice. It arrived so fast that he hadn't caught its movement at all. It hung horizontally in the air with its heavily spiked head to Alice's right and its origin point to the left. It seemed to ignore that gravity existed. The metallic surface glinted dangerously in the room's light.

"Where on earth did that come from?" Lisa blurted in astonishment.

"Not from anywhere on earth at all," Fate smiled. "All devices store their components in a dimension of their own creation. While Lushia and that serpent thing may look small and cute, in reality her components may actually weigh in at several hundred pounds or be larger than a car.

"Hundreds of pounds?" Lushia floated over with a look of offense on her tiny face. "I'll have you know that my final build weighs in at over thirty metric tons!"

"T-Thirty tons!" Fate, Nanoha and Shamal all said almost as one, incredulity heavily present. "What the hell did they build you with?

Lushia shrugged in an oddly similar imitation of Alice's. "This and that, just remember I'm not some puny lightweight!"

"We won't" Nanoha said with a small laugh. Then she walked forward and ran a hand down the chain. "So this is what you hit me with?"

"Yeah, sorry about that," Alice said, apologizing. "I was tired and you kind of came out of nowhere."

"Wasn't a problem," Nanoha said good naturedly. "What are your limits with these?"

"I don't really know yet," Alice said with a small frown. "I haven't had a chance to see about that yet, but I can call of four of these." With that three more appeared next to her, rising up like strange pillars. Howard looked at the spikes and knew he definitely thought that if he were an opponent of Alice, he would want to stay well away from the business end of those things.

Alice frowned thoughtfully for a moment more, and then all four chains rocketed away from her with what had to be impossible speed. Everyone jumped at the sudden, violent, movement and stared as the silvery things snaked and twisted in the air. Soon they filled a large percentage of the volume of the room and yet they continued to exit from their origins. The air above them looked like a writhing mass of metal snakes and the four spikes seemed to slither like lightning fast pythons through them. Then just as suddenly as it started, they stopped. And Alice frowned up at them some more.

"That's as long as I can make them," Alice said in a musing voice.

"I can't tell how long they are," Nanoha said frowning as well.

"I could, but…" Azusa pointed at the bracelet she wore.

"Easily taken care of," Shamal said. "You can take it off in this room, the shields should be fine."

Azusa smiled, took the bracelet off and then stared upwards. After a second she smiled more broadly "I got it! They are 150ft long from their origin point to their tip."

"Thanks Azu," Alice grinned. "It's good to know."

Shamal smiled as well, "You really need a device of your own Azusa, it would really help you control yourself without the need for the limiter."

Howard saw Lushia smile at this comment, but before she could say anything they were interrupted by the door sliding open with a soft hiss.

"Oi Nanoha!" called a cheerful voice, preceding its owner. It was followed immediately by a short girl that stepped out of the door and into the room. "Hayate said you—Ahk! What is that?" The girl was staring up into the room full of writhing metal and Howard saw her reaching for something at her throat.

"Vita!" Nanoha said loudly, her voice ringing with open affection at the sight of the newcomer. "Don't worry about those, Alice knows what she's doing, I think"

Alice snorted and suddenly all the chains snapped back into their origins in an instant. It was as if they had some kind of elastic cord that yanked them back to where they came from. Howard saw that the new girl was gawking at Alice a little as she walked over. Nanoha met her part way and hugged the girl around the shoulders and then they made their way over to the rest of them.

"It's really good to see you again!" Nanoha enthused. "We've missed you."

The small girl blushed but her smile said she was pleased by the greeting. "You too Nanoha, Hayate just told me you and Fate were on board. I had to pester her to get her to tell me where on this tin can you were. I should have figured you were down here having fun without me."

"I'll have you knew that we are working, not playing, Vita," Nanoha said with a chuckle. "Right Fate?"

"We _are_ working," Fate seconded with what even Howard would have called an unconvincing smile. She gestured toward Lisa and him. "See? This is Ambassador Howard Rhoads, his assistant Lisa Denning and," she gestured toward Alice who had moved over to stand next to Azusa again. "This is his daughter Alice and her friend Azusa. These two were captured by the Imperial troops. Everyone this is Lt. Commander Vita."

"Good to meet'cha," Vita nodded. She glanced over at Alice. "That mess was from her? What was it?"

"Her device," Nanoha explained. "She was giving us a bit of a demonstration."

"Her device?" Vita said in a surprised tone. She looked more closely at Alice and smiled in an on oddly considering way.

*000000*

Alice felt a little uncomfortable under this new arrival's stare. It seemed as if she was being weighed and measured. Then the strange girl looked at her father.

"What was that look for?" Azu asked quietly in her ear.

"No idea," Alice said.

"So you're the Ambassador Hayate mentioned was coming?" Vita said to her father. She held out a hand and her father took it. Alice had to grin at the sight of her dad towering over the small statured, red-haired girl.

"Yes," her father rumbled out amiably. "It seems I was roped in both by my own people and yours for this job, but it is good to meet you all."

"Likewise," Vita said, and then looked toward Alice again. This time she frowned and then walked toward her quickly until she was only a couple paces away. Then Alice realized what Vita was staring at wasn't her, but Lushia who she saw was staring right back defiantly.

"Are you gonna stare at me all day?" Lushia quipped snappishly.

Vita's eyes flared and she pointed at Lushia while turning to glare at Nanoha and the other woman. "There's another of the bloody things!"

"Thing!" Lushia squawked in protest. She sat straight upright in indignation. "I happen to be a person, and I have a name!"

Alice smiled because she herself had had a similar first meeting with Lushia. The feisty little woman really didn't like being objectified. Alice found Lushia's quicksilver disposition to be endearing and interesting. And since she could feel tastes of Lushia's emotions in her head she got to experience them right along with her partner.

"Rein's gonna flip Nanoha!" Vita said to the woman, ignoring Lushia entirely. "She already argues with Agito on a daily basis, they're always quarreling and pulling pranks on each other. I don't know how Signum stands it!"

"It'll be an interesting meeting to be sure," Nanoha conceded. Alice just wanted to know what they were talking about. She was going to ask but Nanoha grinned at her and cut her off short. "Hey Vita, want to have some fun for a little bit and show off to our guests?"

:"Nanoha!" Fate smiled. "I hope you mean all three of us.

"Of course," Nanoha agreed.

Vita looked confused but intrigued. "You mean that you two want to a have a bit of match?" Nanoha nodded eagerly. Vita grinned now, hands on her hips. "I'm all for it! The only person around here who's any fun for that kinda thing is Signum. All the other guys start complaining."

"Pardon, but can I ask what you two are talking about?" Father asked. "Are you going to have some kind of sparring match?"

"Yes," Fate answered as she started stretching her arms and legs. "You should all get a chance to see what it is we can do while we have a fun reunion. It's a good chance to really see what magic can do as far our combat abilities are concerned."

"Sounded to me like you just want to play around on the job," Alice said with a smirk.

"Alice!" Asuza said with a half-scandalized laugh. "Be polite."

"She's fine," Nanoha laughed. "She is more than correct. Vita is a very close friend of ours and we have always found sparring with each other to be a lot fun as well as good practice for us all. We haven't had a chance to do so in a very long while. But the rest wasn't a lie either; it will be an educational experience to you as well. Do you mind?"

"I sure don't!" Father chuckled. "I've been curious to see how you guys operate since I first met you. A chance to see how you really fight isn't a problem at all. Ms. Denning?"

"Definitely!" the eager sounding woman blurted. Alice smirked when she saw that Dad's assistant looked more than a little like a kid who was about to see an awesome show. "I've never seen anything like this! I knew I would probably get to see actual magic at work, but this is much more than I ever expected1"

Alice shared an excited smile with Azusa and then a playful grin at Lushia. Azusa knew her partner liked this kind of thing and Azusa was a more than willing audience herself. She had seen examples from both of them when she fought on the rooftops in Russia. Lushia was very like herself in her manner of thinking, she was excited at the idea of the contest, however playful it might be. Maybe that was one of the reasons they were compatible as partners.

"Seems like everyone's on board with the idea," said Vita. "How are we doing this? We don't have even sides to form teams."

"We can't call Signum or Zafira?" Fate asked.

"Nope, they're dealing with the prisoners at the moment," Vita replied glumly. Then she got an odd smile on her face. She turned that smile on Alice and she felt on add chill go up her spine. "How about this new girl here? Is she any good in a fight?"

"Me?" Alice blurted out incredulously even as her father, Lisa and Azusa gaped. "I've only fought with magic once. Aren't all of you aces or something with years of experience? And I can't even fly yet!"

Vita chuckled. "There are plenty of powerful and very deadly mages who can't fly, I've fought with a number of them, so that's no big deal. And how else are you gonna get experience unless you fight with someone?" She smiled even larger. "I want a chance to have a go with Nanoha so you can go up against Fate. She's fought trainees before so she knows how to hold herself back. I promise, it'll be a lot of fun." By now her grin was wide.

"I don't mind partnering with you," Fate said by way of agreement. "I'm curious about you too."

"Welll..." Alice felt a sizable bubbled of excitement start to build up and through her nervousness at being put on the spot. She had always loved her sparring matches during her martial arts classes. She loved the contest and the chance to push herself just a little farther. She always learned just a little bit more about herself too. She looked over at her father and he just smiled and shrugged, obviously deferring this to her. Azusa just smiled and gave her thumbs up. And Lushia she didn't even need to look at. She could feel the woman's glee inside her head.

"_Do you think I even have a tiny chance of lasting more than a few minutes?" _She sent mentally.

"_Hmmm, maybe more than a few minutes, but no you'll definitely be taken out quickly," _Lushia sent back. "_But that doesn't mean it won't be fun! These are real mages Alice! So what if you get a few bruises? At least you'll get to find out what it's really like to fight against another mage without it being a fight for your life."_

Alice sent a mental laugh back as well as an affirmation. Then she looked to Fate and gave a small bow as she would have in the training facility back home. "I suppose I can give it a shot ma'am." She answered respectfully. "Thank you for inviting me to participate."

"Don't thank us yet!" Vita said, laughing loudly. "Wait until we're done and you've had a chance to get pummeled a little!"

"Be nice Vita," Nanoha said with a smile, she and Fate both removed their uniform jackets so that they stood in their uniform trousers and a t-shirt. She held he jacket in one hand and raised the other to summon up a control window. Fate began to stretch her arms and legs. When Vita started to do the same Alice got the message and followed suit.

As Nanoha tapped in commands, the room began to change. The bulkheads began to shimmer and a large partial sphere shield engulfed the room's hatch. Emblazed over the translucent surface were the words: Warning! Combat Simulation In Progress! Alice figured that the shield was there so that if anyone came in they wouldn't be accidentally blasted by an erroneously aimed spell.

Opposite from the hatch, a section of the bulkhead slid back and then aside to reveal a shielded alcove with a set of tiered bleacher-style seats. The shield across the opening shimmered.

"Could everyone not participating have a seat over there?" Nanoha said, as she closed her command screen and began doing her own stretches. "That shield will be able to take anything any of us could possibly use." There was a general murmuring of assents and the others made their way over as directed. Lushia gave her an encouraging pat on the shoulder before she followed them, flying smoothly through the air.

For about twenty minutes more that all continued to stretch out thoroughly, as they did so Alice watched the three people she would be having this match with. They conversed with each other in manner that said they were extremely familiar with each other. There was a lot of general teasing and bantering comments cast about and Alice also noticed that Nanoha and Fate were very, very close to each other. She hadn't noticed it before, but their body language made it quite clear. Finally they were all satisfied that they were ready, though in Alice's case she was still a little unsure of exactly how good she could possibly perform.

By unspoken agreement she and Fate crossed to the far side of the large room while Nanoha and Vita stayed where they were. Then she and Fate separated a little until they stood about ten paces from the other. Across the room the other two stood a similar distance apart.

"Alright everyone, armor up!" Nanoha commanded loudly with a wide smile.

Directly in front of her, Fate held out her hand and Alice saw a gold colored triangle made of some metal in her palm. She looked at it fondly and spoke firmly. "Bardiche! Set-up!"

"Yes Master!" came a deep throated rumble that came with a flash of light from the triangle thing. Then it was Fate who was engulfed in light. It was a bright yellow that she recognized vaguely from the fighting in Russian. There was a sound of crackling and sizzling and then, just as fast as it started, the light vanished. Then Fate stood before her in an outfit made of tight black material as well as a white cape. Fate pulled the cape away from the rest of the outfit and it vanished. Fate also held onto a very large looking axe that very much resembled its namesake.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw more bright light and turned to see Nanoha in her white jacket and skirt. Vita was clad in a thick outfit of black and reds that looked a little like a cross between Alice's armor and Nanoha's. In Nanoha's hands was the long staff she remembered. Vita held a long handled hammer which she hefted across her chest.

"Very cool," Alice said softly.

"Thanks for the compliment," Fate said, laughing when Alice realized she had been heard. "Are you ready now?"

"I suppose I am," Alice answered.

"Good," Fate replied. "I'll start things off. I promise to go easy on you. Ignore the other two and focus on me, OK?"

"Got'yah," Alice acknowledged. She rolled her shoulders once unnecessarily and then settled down into a ready stance and let her training start to come over her. She breathed in and out smoothly and calmly, focusing all her attention on Fate. She saw Fate's pleased surprise at her stance as she herself settled in.

"Begin!" A loud buzzer sounded through the room on the heels on Nanoha's call. Alice was only vaguely aware of a tingle that passed over her skin at the same time because Fate simply leapt straight at her. She didn't run or anything like that, she literally jumped forward and let out a loud cry as she skimmed over the distance between them and raised her device up to swing at her. Only a pace in front of her, Fate swung down hard.

Though she was shocked and surprised by the sudden and rapid assault, Alice was saved only by her training honed reflexes. Even as Fate swung downward, Alice swung upward. In mid swing her chain trident slid into her hand as if it had been there all along. The two weapons connected solidly, but since Alice knew she couldn't take a full hit with only one arm, she let Fate's axe glance off to one side. As she did so she saw Fate's surprise at seeing her with the hand-held, trident headed mace. She hadn't shown them that yet, Alice remembered.

Needing some distance to organize her mind again, Alice summoned up two more of the chains between herself and Fate. Immediately they obeyed her thoughts and tried to coil around her opponent. Fate obliged her by jumping back to avoid them. As she did so Alice resumed her stance and concentrated again. Fate's small smile when she looked at her said that the women had understood the maneuver. Alice also smiled because she could already feel the adrenaline pumping into her blood. This really was a lot of fun.

Fate also took a new stance for a moment, then she held her device out before her and it spoke again. "**Haken Form!" ** Alice's eyes widened as she watched Bardiche's head pivot upwards for a crescent blade of blazing yellow light that erupted from the shaft. Fate moved it again and Alice saw that it now looked like a wicked scythe. Smirking a little at Alice's expression, Fate leapt up into the air.

"Ahhh! Not fair!" Alice yelled inside her head. She realized that Fate was going to use her ability to fly to make aerial strikes down at her with much harder blows. Then she had an idea.

A chain coiled around her own body in a tight embrace that left her arm free as it came up from the area near her feet. Then, like she had in Russia, she used the chain to carry her up at her foe. She shot up with ridiculous speed and she had the momentary satisfaction of seeing Fate's shock at seeing her up in the air as well. But that satisfaction was short lived.

Fate responded instantly by coming straight at her again. Alice responded by using a chain to catch the incoming attack while using a second and then a third one to whip at Fate from diverging angles. But Fate was much too fast; she disengaged and then returned for another blow.

For a long period they exchanged attacks this way. Alice got the feeling that Fate was testing her. But her novice's defense wasn't up to the relentless strikes. She tried as best she could to avoid that swinging scythe but it wasn't enough.

Fate's attack snuck in past her trident. It was a back handed swing but when the back of the staff of Fate's device hit her in the stomach it was like she had been hit by a cannon. She slammed backwards and hit the ground hard on her back with a loud grunt that shoved the air out of her lungs. But then she stared upwards in confusion because the pain she had expected at such a hit hadn't been there.

"You're armor and the shield Nanoha raised on us all absorbed most of the impacts." Fate said as she lighted down about thirty feet way. "That was a fairly good effort, so let's keep going."

Alice nodded and got back to her feet quickly. With as much alacrity as possible she summoned all four chains from wildly diverging points of origin and launched them at Fate. Fate countered each of them in rapid succession with quick, snapping rotations of her weapon. This time Alice kept up the assault. She kept the chains coming in from various angles and differences in timing. She also manipulated the silver links to try and get them to snare her foe. But Fate was obviously up to the task because she smoothly responded to each one with her own weapon or a small shield she raised to cover any exposed flank she couldn't physically reach in time. Not once did Alice touch her with her chains.

Throughout it all Fate never looked like she felt pushed or harried. Her face kept the same expression of calm professionalism. Then suddenly, Fate jumped back in a flight assisted leap. When she landed she raised Bardiche in her direction. "**Plasma Lancer!" **There was a loud metallic sound and steam erupted from Bardiche. A spell circle opened beneath Fate and Alice watched a dozen conical arrows of blazing light take form.

"Fire!"

At Fate's shout Alice realized it was a ranged spell. Not really knowing what to do, she whipped her chains harshly over the area between them in an effort to intercept a few. Then she raised her own shield, the one Lushia had shown her, to take care of the rest. Pops of little explosions rage around her but her shield held. As soon as he vision cleared she decided to return fire.

"**Sapphire Bombs!" **She smiled at Fate's curious expression and then launched the six crystalline projectiles she had created.

*000000*

Azusa felt like every nerve in her body was tingly from nervousness and excitement. Both emotions came from watching Alice as she fought against the Fate woman. She enjoyed watching her friend do amazing things with her magic and stuff, but she also worried about her. She knew Alice herself probably wasn't too worried, but she couldn't help it. Alice was just that important to her. Especially since she took off that bracelet, she could feel the magic of all four women as they attacked and leapt at each other and the power flowing around made her nervous.

She had flinched when Fate had launched that ranged attack, but Alice emerged unscathed. Alice was grinning with excitement and she heard her call out her own spell. Azusa recognized the shards that throbbed with an inner light. Next to her Alice's father let out a low whistle. It turned into a surprised gasp when all six projectiles shot at Fate at a high velocity. Though Fate dodged out of the way from the easily seen spell, Azusa knew what was coming.

The shards arrived near Fate even as she moved away. In one deafening boom that sent an echoing concussion throughout the large room, all six exploded violently. Fate was close enough to the edges of them that she was thrown away.

"Wooo!" Alice's father breathed out. "Was that from Alice?"

"Damn right!" Lushia gushed as she flipped and flew through the air in her quivering excitement. She had been bouncing around from the very start like an overly rabid sports fan. Every time Alice struck a blow she cheered and moaned when she took a hit. Azusa had been enjoying her antics almost as much as the actual fight. "I taught her all those spells she's using."

"She used them in Russia," Azusa elaborated. He looked at her and she felt a little uncomfortable under his stern, detail stripping gaze. He had eyes much like her own father had, though this man a least had shown himself to care very deeply about his daughter. "When we were attacking those squads Alice used these bombs to soften them up for her chain strikes."

Speaking of that, Azusa saw all four of Alice's chains boil up like angry tentacles at Fate who had quickly recovered from her tumble. Again she leapt into the air. But this time one of the chains heads managed to just touch against Bardiche. As soon as it did so a crash of thunder boomed through the room as lightning sizzled up the chain. But Alice hadn't been quick enough, Fate saw the incoming attack and spoke a spell and she flashed away with blinding speed. She reappeared behind Alice and spun into a kick that threw Alice face down onto the floor.

Then noise from the other side drew her attention. Like Alice and Fate, Vita and Nanoha hadn't used much magic yet. They had been zipping about in the air like angry glowing fireflies. When they came together their weapons crashed against each other in sizzling strikes. Vita she noticed favored blunt, head on attacks while Nanoha moved a bit more like Fate, she would carefully place each and every strike. But now somehow, they had opened the range between each other and they stood on nearly opposite sides of the chamber near the ceiling. Nanoha stood with her feet placed wide apart on a shining circle of pink light with her staff pointed at Vita who looked a bit miffed by what was happening.

There was a sharp metallic sound again and Azusa saw Nanoha's staff change shape slightly and rings of pink light spun into existence at the base and tip. A ball of pink light also formed in the tines. Then she let out a cry, "Deviiine! Buster!"

All at once, a shaft of blazing light erupted out of the woman's staff and punched out at Vita. Just before it struck Azusa saw and felt Vita raise a hasty shield. The explosion that came this time dwarfed anything that had come from Alice and Fate. The floor actually shook from the reverberations. When they could all see again, Vita was standing inside a full body shield that was covered with visible cracks and in her hand was a sphere that glowed with red light. As her shield collapsed she smashed that sphere with her hammer and it rocketed at Nanoha who deflected it into a wall with a small hand sized barrier. Both were breathing a bit heavily when the attack run ran down, but they were also grinning. Then they were flying at each other yet again.

Alice and Fate she observed had paused to watch the spectacle. But then she noticed Alice looking in their direction.

"Oh!" Lushia exclaimed out of no where. The small woman smiled and nodded vigorously. Azusa traced her gaze to that of Alice and she realized they were talking telepathically. At that realization she felt a small pang of envy. She really wished she could talk to Alice that way too.

Alice's father was watching it all with awe on his face. His assistant, Lisa, was open mouthed and wide eyed. They had noticed Lushia's outburst as well and they turned their attention back to Alice and Fate.

Again the two went back to trading blows, mostly with Fate attacking Alice. She noticed that Alice had a habit of staying in one place and holding her ground with her chains instead of moving directly against the other woman. Those silvery metal extensions of Alice's will writhed and swung everywhere. The more Alice used them the faster and more agile they seemed to move. Azusa knew they were become ever more unconscious parts of Alice's body.

Then, very suddenly and without warning, a chain erupted up in front of Alice, wrapped around her, and then carried her swiftly across the room. Fate, who had been coming down through the air launched what looked like a crescent of light but it landed where Alice had been just an instant before. Fate herself landed with consternation on her face as she realized her opponent had fled across the room.

"What's Alice doing?" Azusa asked Lushia, who was watching the proceedings in anticipation.

"You'll see," Lushia said. "Alice is starting to figure things out on her own now. I just gave her a bit of help."

Azusa wondered what she meant, but she turned her attention back to the matches because Alice had summoned up six more bomb shards. Fate saw them and braced herself for the inevitable attack. But Alice didn't launch them yet. Instead she stared with intense concentration as she extended all four chains out in front of her, directly at Fate.

Then Azusa saw them, around the head of each spike head was a thick, spinning ring of dark blue light inscribed with odd sigils. A triangular spell form snapped open at the origin point of each chain and beneath Alice's feet, and then a small ball of light bloomed at the very tip of each spike inside the rings. She saw Fate frowning at what Alice was doing, but she didn't make a move to attack and interrupt it. All the while Alice just crossed her arms and concentrated. Even Nanoha and Vita slowed to watch what Alice was attempting to do.

Then they all saw Alice reach a point of conclusion. "**Azure Lances! Fire!"**

From each glowing ball, where the containment rings were spinning rapidly now, a crackling blade of light shot outward toward Fate. Fate easily flew away from them but Alice followed her, firing several shots from each chain head in rapid sequence. When the spell bolts slammed into a wall there was an angry flare of light. Alice ignored those and continued to track on Fate.

Fate raised her own shield when one beam got too close, but it was quickly eroded away as the beam seemed to dig through it. But then, before the shield failed entirely, the beams cut off, as their apparent time limit ran out and the rings disappeared.

But Alice was already moving on. Now she launched her shards. They raced out toward Fate like blue missiles. Again Fate dodged them with ease, this time raising a small barrier to deflect the coming blast front. But Alice did something different.

"Shatter!" At Alice's command each shard erupted into dozens of smaller pieces about the size of a person's fist. They flew in every direction from the point at which the sundering occurred. Then each smaller piece exploded like a hand grenade when Alice commanded them to. It ended up looking a bit like the sky flowers of a fireworks display in miniature.

When Fate came flying came flying out of the fiery blast Azusa saw she wore a grin. She turned in mid-air and swung her device hard. "**Thunder Smasher!" **This time it was from Fate that a blast erupted. It swept over Alice like an angry sizzling flood and when it passed, Alice was kneeling on the ground looking more than a tiny bit singed but she was smiling.

Still sitting there she started laughing. Everyone, except for Vita and Nanoha who had gone back to their own energetic sparring, starred at Alice in confusion. Then Alice stood up and grinned up at Fate. "I figured it out!" she shouted in what Azusa recognized as pure glee.

Azusa wondered what she had figured out. At least until Lushia began laughing too. Her smile was all pride. "Do it Alice!" the small woman cried.

"Well, we're waiting," Fate said when she touched back down. "What did you figure out?"

"This!" Alice's face smoothed in concentration. Then a fog-like cloud of dark blue light coalesced around her body. It grew and slid over Alice's skin and armor. At this point Fate expression changed from patient humor to a grin that matched Alice's Then there was one more flash of light from a burst of uncontrolled magic and it happened.

"Slowly, Alice began to rise up off the floor. It was only a few inches at first, but as Alice concentrated and controlled her new spell she rose faster. Giving off a glee filled laugh Alice punched up into the air. She flew in an oddly jerky and hard angled manner at first, almost stopping with every direction change, but she began to smooth out quickly. At this point it was obvious that she had completely forgotten about the sparring match because she was soon flipping and zipping around the room, even popping between a surprised Vita and Nanoha. Her laughter never cut off.

After about twenty minutes of this she landed roughly in front of an obviously amused Fate and collapsed onto her behind.

"Uhhh, I think I need to yield!" Alice called out with a laugh "I'm out of gas!"

The other three landed near her and when Azusa saw the shield protecting the audience alcove vanish, she and the other all went out as well.

"I'm not surprised that you're tired already," Shamal said in an I-knew-this-would-happen voice. "You're still recovering from before. At least you didn't run yourself ragged this time. A night's rest or two should have you back to full strength, but this was a pretty good showing for your current status. You seem to learn fairly quickly."

"Thanks I think," Alice chuckled as she continued to sit down on the floor. Her armor dissipated and Lushia immediately resumed her shoulder perch. Alice absently reached up her hand to touch Lushia fondly as he looked on at everyone. "How did I actually do?"

"Not bad at all!" Fate grinned. "You leave a large number of holes in your defenses, but when you do attack you do so with a great deal of power. If you work on your precision and the speed of the spells themselves, you could be fairly respectable in combat soon. But you do have a large number of problem areas to work on like I said. But at least you made me step it up a little more than I originally intended. And the flying was an unexpected bonus."

"How far did you go against her?" Nanoha asked.

"I went at about twenty-five percent strength. I originally thought to go at about ten but she has to much general strength to do that. She almost when through my shield there when she tried that new spell."

"What was that?" Alice's father asked.

"Heh, well I got the idea from watching Nanoha and from remembering how that big spell I used in Russia worked," Alice answered as she pointed at Nanoha. "I wanted to have a more versatile long-range spell. So I talked to Lushia for a second and she help me slap that thing together. It wasn't at all perfect though, I almost lost containment on one of them so I know in a future use of the spell I'll have to strengthen that. It almost blew up in my face."

"I for one rather like that variation you did on the bomb spell," Lushia commented. "Very creative."

"Agreed," Fate seconded. "I really wasn't expecting it when all those micro bomblets exploded all around me."

They all chatted for a bit more about the quick bout, but then Vita got impatient. "Oi, Nanoha are we gonna finish our match?"

"Coming!" Nanoha replied hefting her staff. "Sorry, I got distracted."

"Good, because I still want to—"

She cut off as a loud chime sounded through the room. Then a large window containing a person opened up against one wall. It was so large in fact that there was more window than wall visible. In it was the same pleasant seeming woman she and Alice had seen in Russia.

"Sorry to interrupt the fun," the woman began with what seemed to be genuine regret. "But can I ask that every one there please come to the flag bridge?"

Vita let out a low groan, "Come on Hayate! We were just getting started!"

"I know, and I wish I could let you continue, but there are more important matters right now."

"It's time?"

"It is," the woman, Hayate, confirmed. "We've arrived."

"Arrived where?" Alice asked.

Hayate gave Alice and then everyone else a confident smile.

"We have arrived over the enemy gate in Japan."

.

.

Author's notes:

Azure Lance: Alice's imitation to Nanoha's buster. She created it with Lushia's help using what she already knew from the much bigger spell she used in Russia. They just scaled it way down. It allows for multiple discharges but has a finite time limit.

Flight: Alice figured out hot to fly from watching those around her doing so.

A note on my previous chapters: I have realized recently that ff. net has, for whatever reason, decided that using multiple asterisks (******) as a break between viewpoints was a bad thing. If you have read through all of them recently you'll notice that all the ones I used are now gone and everything kind of runs together. I apologize for this and I promise to go back and put some other kind of break in when I get the time.

Also I apologize for the longer break between updates. I ended up doing multiple rewrites of this chapter because it didn't want to quite come together the way I wanted it to. I hope the result is worth the wait.


	8. Preparing

Alice marveled to herself silently at what she saw as she and the others all made their way through the massive TSAB ship to its flag bridge. Everything she saw made curiosity burn inside her. Her state of excitement was such that Lushia kept laughing as she rode on Alice's right shoulder. Alice didn't really care or mind, she knew she was acting goofy, but she couldn't help it either. There were just so many interesting things to see.

Their group moved down the spotlessly clean passageway, and she saw numerous personnel of the TSAB doing things as they went about their duties and their tasks interested her. She wanted to know how all of this worked and what the magic they were using did and all that. But she also knew there wasn't time for that at the moment. So she politely restrained herself.

Their procession drew a lot of glances from the ship's crew too. They really did look a bit like a mini-parade since they were walking in twos down the right-hand side of the corridor. Nanoha and Fate led them, and then came her father and his assistant Lisa Denning, and then Alice and Azusa along with Lushia, and Vita and Shamal brought up the rear. Vita and Azusa had both noticed her preoccupation with the goings on around them and both were smiling their amusement, well, Vita's could probably be called and outright grin. The woman was really free about showing her emotions.

Alice liked the short, vibrant woman. Vita was energetic and had a quicksilver disposition, but Alice thought she could be fun. And Azusa seemed to like her too which weighed heavily on her own opinion as well. But Alice couldn't help but think that Vita seemed to be expecting something greatly entertaining to happen shortly. And that it would involve her somehow.

Alice looked over at her friend and was greatly relieved that they were out of danger for the moment. She had worried a lot more for Azusa than she had for her own safety during all the fighting and stuff. And she also liked that Azusa was smiling and happy now and that most of the worrying fear was no longer lingering somewhere in her eyes. She had both hated that Azusa had to worry about her and been greatly appreciative of the caring, but this face was much better.

The procession stopped at a double-door hatch that appeared to be reinforced in some way. Nanoha reached out a slim fingered hand to a keypad on the right bulkhead and tapped in a quick sequence of numbers. When she finished a soft tone sounded and a ripple of green light passed over her body.

"Commander Takamatchi, identification confirmed," spoke a soft female voice. "Admittance granted."

There was a slight shimmering effect as some kind of magical shield disengaged from the surface of the hatch and then it slid quickly and smoothly open without a single sound.

Through the door Alice saw a large, dimly lit room. Nanoha led them through the hatch and it snapped silently shut behind them. Once inside Alice's eyebrows rose as she saw what it contained. It was indeed very large and only half the lights seemed to be lit. The air was distinctly on the cool side. Just enough to raise goose bumps on her arms.

She'd heard of set ups like this before though. They had them in military command centers. She knew that the dimness let people see screens a little more easily and the coldness kept people a little more alert. In this room there were plenty of people to make those efforts worthwhile.

The room had two levels to it. They stood on a large, raised, square area. Along a railing directly in front of them sat four women at stations with displays up in front of them. Around the inner square ran another slightly sunken one in which, after a quick count, were twenty more men and women. They each had a station and some were talking to people on their screens. There were other displays all over the place; some big and many small ones too. They were filled with a deluge of information but Alice was still too far away to see what was on most of them. Along the entire right wall however was one long display that ran from wall to wall near the ceiling. It contained the names, pictures and status of a number of other ships and a small globe picture in the middle that gave the planetary location of each.

"Nanoha! Fate!" In the center of the upper square was a large, curved desk. A relatively short woman with unassuming brown hair stood from behind it. She and a man who had been standing next to it walked toward them. Alice recognized her as the same woman who had spoken through the screen earlier and also back in Russia.

"Hayate!" Both Fate and Nanoha greeted the woman as a very close friend. When they all came together the three women exchanged a few quick, very _non-_military hugs and then stepped back. Nanoha smirked at the blue haired man.

"She's still working you hard Griffith?" Nanoha said in a teasing voice.

"I'm afraid so," Griffith said in a sad tone that earned him a mock glare from the woman, Hayate. "We both got promoted at the same time and for my sins I've been kept on as her chief-of-staff and second in command."

Hayate looked over at the rest of them and she approached her father and shook his hand. "Welcome aboard the _Wolfram_ Ambassador. I am Division Commander, Hayate Yagami."

"Howard Rhoads," Father answered respectfully, despite his obvious surprise at how Nanoha and Fate had greeted such a high ranked person. He gestured to his assistant. "This is Lisa Denning; she was assigned to me to act as my assistant and to keep me from putting my foot in my mouth."

For a moment Lisa looked appalled at that honesty, but when Commander Hayate chuckled she visibly relaxed. "Nice to meet you as well," Hayate said.

"And this is his daughter, Alice," Nanoha said gesturing at Alice. Alice shook the woman's hand and was surprised. This person, who obviously commanded and wielded a great deal of power didn't give off any kind of feeling of that. She was like your favorite older sister or something and her hands felt gentle despite having calluses. "And her friend, Azusa Higa." Azu's face reddened but she too got through the introduction smoothly.

"I've heard about you two," Hayate said, smiling at them. "And I was impressed by your sparring match with Fate earlier."

"You were watching?" Alice asked with interest.

"This is my ship and those two are very old friends of mine, so yes, I couldn't help watching," Hayate said with a wide smile. "Those two are always fun to watch in action and Vita too of course."

"Thanks," Vita said with wry humor.

"Well, now that that's out of the way," Hayate said, becoming serious. "It's time to get down to business. Follow me."

They obeyed and when she walked toward the left wall of the room another smaller hatch, one she hadn't noticed in the dim light, slid soundlessly open. Once inside they found themselves in a large conference room with an equally large table surrounded by comfortable looking seats. Hayate gestured them into those seats and the woman took the chair at table's head. Griffith took the chair to her immediate right.

Knowing that she and Azusa weren't all that important to this meeting, Alice sat a ways down so that she wouldn't inadvertently distract the others. Azusa sat next to her.

Hayate raised a hand in a flicking gesture and several screens bloomed to life in front of her. Behind and over her head, larger clones of those screens appeared for them all to see.

Since she had sat far down, Alice didn't have the greatest view and wished she could have her own set of displays. Almost as soon as she had that thought she heard a soft noise in her ear and copies of those screens _did_ appear in front of her spot at the table in a spread out fashion like Hayete had hers. Another absent thought rearranged them in an arrangement she found more convenient.

She heard noises of surprise and saw that all of the adults were staring at her, the TSAB people in mild amusement and the rest in surprise.

"How did you do that?" her father asked in a curious tone.

Alice shrugged. "I just wanted my own displays and as soon as I thought that, these appeared."

"It's because your device linked you to the table computer's interface, which is in turn connected to the ship's AI," Hayate explained, still amused. "Did you do that?"

"No, I did it on my own," Lushia said, sounding aggrieved. It was then Alice realized that she hadn't introduced Lushia and she sent a profound apology through their mental link and touched the small woman with her remaining hand affectionately. She felt Lushia's acknowledgement and happier acceptance and was heartily relieved. It had been really rude of her to leave her partner out.

"Sorry," Alice said aloud. "This is Lushia, she's my partner." Lushia sketched a seated, yet still elegant bow from her shoulder perch.

"Your partner?" Hayate said with a pleased smile. "I'm sorry that I didn't greet you earlier Lushia that was rude of me. You said you linked her on your own?"

"Didn't see a reason not to, it was an unsecured link," Lushia shrugged. "I figured you didn't mind since it let me in. Besides, with the security you do have its like trying not to look through window."

"It's not a problem," Hayate answered pleasantly. "I was just curious. Now," she returned to her serious tone. "On these screens is what we know about the wide area barrier below this ship."

Alice looked at her own screens now and saw the center one was a downward satellite image of a large opaque dome covering a large swath of the island of Kyushu. A mental command brought up a tag that contained the dimensions of the barrier. The computer also thoughtfully gave her strength estimates and other data.

Hayate waved at her screens and a rash of symbols covered the image around the outside of the barrier. There were small Japanese flags along with numbers and number/letter codes. Alice tried querying one and the computer obeyed and then gave her a better explanation, two seconds before Hayate explained it herself.

"These are JSDF forces that have gathered around the area," Hayate continued. "I believe you know of them already sir?"

"I do," father acknowledged. "I was setting up our own forces to deploy with them just before I came here. They should be arriving on site in Kyushu in about six to ten hours or so."

"Yes, well, that may not be a good thing," Hayate said. "In order to break this barrier, a great deal of energy is going to be needed and that kind of expenditure will have other effects."

"Like what?" father asked, sounding concerned.

"Breaking a barrier like this requires the use of large-scale destructive magic beyond that which a single individual can possibly wield. We have a weapon called the Arc-en-ciel equipped to this and any of the TSAB vessels under my command, but the use of this weapon and the following discharge of energy from the collapsing barrier would do tremendous collateral damage to a large portion of the surrounding area of the earth. It would be roughly equivalent to detonating two nuclear devices with a yield greater than a hundred megatons, minus the radioactive fallout."

"That…does sound unpleasant," father said seriously. Alice saw that Nanoha and Fate looked equally dismayed by that damage assessment. Lisa just looked a bit pale. "There aren't any other alternatives? This region of Japan is rather densely populated, evacuating that many people would be daunting and no matter what we do we'll miss people or they'll refuse to leave and they'll die."

"This kind of destructive potential is why we rarely ever authorize the use of this weapon on a planetary surface, Ambassador," Hayate responded gravely. "But the only alternative would be to go to the world these people came from the long way, but we don't know where that is, so we can't."

"Actually, that's not true," Alice said, drawing everyone's attention. "Lushia said she's been there with her previous master and she told us all about it and why these people are attacking us at all."

"You know who these people are?" Hayate said in rising hope to Lushia.

"Yes, as Alice said, my previous master dealt with them in the past. The reason I awoke from stasis to bond a new master is because of them." Lushia gave a small shrug. "I guess you could say that my last master is actually at fault for them being here since he didn't put them down the right way last time."

Everyone looked at Lushia expectantly when she stopped.

"What?"

"I think it would be good to repeat the story you told us," Alice said in amusement.

"Again?" Lushia said in an exasperated tone. "It's so long."

"It would be much appreciated," Hayate said. She turned to Griffith. "Set up for recording and transmission afterwards to the Infinite Library. Make sure to register this as being about a new Non-Administered world."

"Right, on it," Griffith put his hands out and a keyboard and screen appeared before him. He began keying something in and nodded. "Done, the Infinite Library acknowledges their readiness to receive and record the information and is repeating it to the TSAB database of worlds."

"Good," Hayate smiled. "Lushia, if you would?"

Lushia opened her mouth to speak, but before she could do so the hatch opened silently and for a second Alice thought it had opened all on its own for some reason. But then saw that there was someone flying in the air through the doorway; a very tiny someone.

It was a small woman that looked to be almost the same height as Lushia, but this person had very light blue hair and wore a brown, female TSAB uniform.

"Hayate, I finished that report… oh I'm sorry," the small woman turned to the room and did a small aerial bow. "Pardon my intrusion."

Alice stared, she couldn't help it. Understanding of Vita's references and some comments from the others settled into her mind almost simultaneously with Lushia and for a moment the two of them shared their mental logjam. Then Lushia got them back going.

"So _that's _what you people were talking about," Lushia cast a smirking smile at an anticipatory looking Vita and Alice felt a predatory feeling emanating from her diminutive partner.

The other small woman had turned by then and she locked right onto Lushia. "Gah!" she cried out in surprised dismay and pointed at Lushia. "W-Who is that?"

"Hmmmm?," Lushia grinned and the predatory feeling increased. She launched off Alice's shoulder and then started into a slow orbit around the other woman, who started looking distinctly upset.

"Hayate, who is this?" the small woman said nervously. She looked as if she expected Lushia to do something unpleasant.

"She is Alice's partner," Hayate said with a small smile and a gesture at Alice herself. "Be nice Rein."

"Rein?' Lushia said inquisitively, stopping her inspection right in front of the woman.

"Reinforce Zwei," the other woman said politely. "Also short for The Blessed Wind Reinforce Zwei."

"I nice, proper, Belkan name," Lushia said, sounding very pleased. Then she reached out a hand and when Rein took it Alice watched as both of their mouths fell open. Lushia pulled away by a few feet and then turned toward Alice with an expression of being extremely put out. Alice felt her inner outrage. "Alice! She has a real body!"

A ripple of confusion went around the table.

"You do not?" Hayate asked.

"No," Lushia said crossly. "I am from the very first series of prototypes. The later models were supposed to get the semi-biological bodies, but mine is a kind of force projection and magical embodiment." She turned back and gave the very baffled Rein a pleading look. "Can…can you eat?"

"Of course," Rein said in a tone that said she didn't understand the problem. Then her face changed to shock as well. "Prototype?"

"That's right!" Lushia said, now clearly in a huff. "I'm your senior! What series are you?"

"Series?" Rein responded.

"Rein was made by me and engineers from the TSAB," Hayate explained to Lushia.

Now Lushia cast a superior look at Rain. "So you're several centuries my junior? Hmmm."

"Excuse me," everyone looked at Dr. Shamal as this was the first time she'd spoken since the sparring match. But she was looking at Lushia. "But if you want a physical body like Rein's then it might be possible still. We know a device engineer named Shari who is very good. She was largely instrumental in Rein's construction."

Lushia was shaking her head before Shamal even finished. "Not possible unfortunately, though I thank you for the offer. You saw how I am; my core is permanently embedded in Alice's body. Any tinkering around would effect her as well and that prospect is absolutely unthinkable. If I was still unbound, then maybe I would have done it, but not now." She looked at Rein again resignedly. "Sometimes life just isn't fair."

Rein looked like she was going to say something more but Hayate raised a hand. "Rein, you two can talk later. She was about to tell us about the enemy." Rein nodded her acceptance and then Hayate reached for something on the floor next to her. She then sat a very small version of their chairs on the table as well as a tiny desk in front of her. Rein sat there and Alice watched tiny displays awaken for the small woman so she could follow along.

Lushia gave her a not too hopeful 'do-I-have-to?' glance up at Alice and then sighed when Alice mentally nudged her along. "Alright, alright, but make sure you get this down good, because it's long. The world's name is Hirtolia…"

000000

A couple hours later Lushia finally ran down with the retelling of her story. The faces around the large table ranged from astonished to contemplative to confused. The confused ones belonged to Alice's father and his assistant since they didn't have references to a lot of what Lushia was talking about.

"An Al-Hazard mage living on earth would make a lot of the strangeness about this world that has baffled the TSAB, make a little more sense," Hayate said slowly. "And it definitely explains that huge spell that collapsed on the moon. That thing was driving the analysts back home nuts."

"I just can't believe nothing of a conflict like this, ever got recorded into the histories somewhere," Fate said. "I know that there's a lot from the Belkan era in the Infinite Library that hasn't been looked over in recent memory, but I can't believe no one knew a thing about this."

Lushia shook her head. "You're forgetting something; the Belkan's that went to Hirtolia were outcast nobles and opportunists. The only record that might exist would be that they left and disappeared never to return. They didn't advertise where they went. They liked the idea of having their own little world where people thought they were gods and no one would come around and stop them."

"Well, this certainly isn't the first time someone has used religion to make personal gains," Father said with a deep sigh. Alice thought he sounded a little disappointed. "That's a horror that has been inflicted on a number of people and societies on this world throughout its history. It seems megalomania is problem everywhere."

"But a whole world of people that were indoctrinated to think of the people of this one as being spawn of their religion's devil?" Lisa said disgustedly. "To the point that they refused to ask any of our nations for help when they desperately need it? That's just sick."

"I'm also interested in the explanation for their strange magic use," Nanoha said. Hayate nodded along with her. "I was confused by their complete lack of individuality in spells, but knowing that they're simply using what's been left to them makes sense. They just use the canned spells contained in that central device and the average soldier thinks it is given to him by a god. They don't even question it. All they do is provide a little power and local control."

"But it doesn't explain the way to get around that barrier you were talking about," Father pointed out. Unhappy agreement ran around the table.

"Ummm, yes it does," Alice said. She had begun to feel a little left out of the whole discussion, but she had to point out what they had over looked. It was right there in front of them and they didn't see it. So the only thing to do was to point it out to them.

"It does?" Lushia asked, floating over to her now. Alice felt Lushia's mind follow her thoughts in her head and then the small woman nodded in amused understanding. "That would work! Great idea Alice!"

"Did we miss something?" Hayate asked.

"Yes," Alice said, smiling at the excitement coming from Lushia's mind. "Remember, Lushia's previous master used a large and very capable ship to get around. The computers of that ship should remember how they got to Hirtolia. I doubt the man thought to erase them for some strange reason. You can use that data to get there now. It should give you the exact coordinates or whatever unit of measure you use for going to different worlds."

A number of eyebrows shot up in surprise and understanding. Father was looking up in a very considering gesture, Nanoha looked intrigued and Vita was, predictably enough, grinning.

"That really would work," Hayate said slowly, the timbre of hope flitting into her voice. Her eyes were slightly unfocused as if in deep thought.

"Yes, as long as the computers are still intact after all these centuries," Fate add. "From what you just told us, your last master hasn't been around to maintain it."

"Oh, that's not a worry," Lushia said confidently. "My last master vacated the air from all the spaces and then put everything into a powerful stasis spell. All we need to do now is have Alice make contact with the caretaker AI. It will shut down the spell and it will be as if no time at all has passed."

"That sounds like a much better plan than blowing half of the island below us to hell and gone," Vita interjected cheerfully. "We can just go to them directly and pound on them until they give up. And this way we won't have to worry about fighting through a chokepoint like that portal mouth."

"And we could get rid of this gate from the other unprotected side," Nanoha agreed. "Or just take control of the area from the inside so that we can move people through ourselves if we need to. It couldn't hurt to have the ability to quickly bring in support."

"Yes, and it gives us more time to plan things out thoroughly," Hayate said, now looking very pleased. "We'll go with this." She nodded to herself in satisfaction and Alice felt a little giddy inside that her suggestion was being taken seriously and would be the method used. It was as if they didn't even care that she was at least a decade younger than everyone else in the room except for Azusa and she didn't even have to look at her friend to know that she took her seriously. It was strange to have such respect directed at her by such competent people.

Hayate opened a new screen in front of her.

"Can I help you ma'am?" said a young looking man in the window. He had a cheerful face framed by long, tied-back, blonde hair.

"Yes you can, Leo," Hayate responded with a professional smile. "I want to contact three other ships from the division and combine the power from all four into a barrier that will contain the one below us. I want that thing as secure as possible and I want you to pass on the order that our barrier is not to be dropped until a TSAB mage makes contact with the ships from _within_ the barrier."

If the man was confused by that, Alice didn't see any sign of it. "Yes ma'am, I'll get right on it," the man responded and then cut the connection.

"I take it you have a plan in mind?" Nanoha said with a grin as she sat a little more upright. Beside her Fate was looking equally pleased and ready looking.

"It's forming up nicely in my head," Hayate nodded. "So for now we'll lock them in tight enough to swallow a full dislocation. But I want to wait at least until the rest of the ships that are on the way arrive, and I want to get a few things worked out with the locals." This last was said with a smile to her father who grimaced. "I think it'll take at least week or so."

"Sounds good," Fate nodded. There was a general murmur of agreement from everyone else. Alice was far from the most knowledgeable about such things, but it seemed to her that a week was a fairly quick time table for what sounded like a counter-invasion.

"In the meantime, we'll get things set up perfectly and try to square things away here," Hayate continued. "But I know its getting late now so we can end things here for the day. Ambassador, have you been given your quarters?"

"Yes, Lisa and I were shown them, though I have no idea how to get back to them from here." Father responded pleasantly. "But they did look comfortable."

"Navigating the ships isn't too difficult," Hayate said in a friendly manner. "The ship's AI will point you in the right direction no matter where you are. All you have to do is ask it to help." She looked over at Alice and Azusa. "I'm sorry to say this, but that means we don't have a great many empty cabins available. We're running over compliment at the moment in enforcer teams so space is limited. By my count that means we have one spare cabin left, do you two mind sharing a room?"

Alice smiled and shared it with Azusa who actually looked exceptionally pleased by this news. It was a reaction that Alice very much liked. "I don't think it will be a problem," Azusa responded happily, speaking up first for once. "Alice and I have been sharing a room for the last week, so another won't bother us. We are quite comfortable in each others company."

"Good," Hayate said in satisfaction. "Now can I ask if either of you has had any thoughts about what you want to do now that you know about and can use magic? What are your plans?"

"We haven't really had a chance to stop and think about that," Alice shrugged ruefully. "But before I got nabbed, when I was just working on making magic work on my own, I thought about getting into a University on a research grant or something to work on and develop it further. But now that I've seen how advanced you guys are…"

"It sounds a little pointless?" Hayate grinned.

"Yeah, pretty much," Alice agreed.

"And you Azusa?"

"Uhm…" Azusa colored a little for some reason. "I think I just want to go along with Alice for now, but it would be nice to know how what I can do works and if I can do anything else like Alice can. I would just prefer staying with her."

"Then I'd like you both to know that you and any of the other children, have been invited to join the TSAB and to receive formal schooling and training as such," Hayate smiled. "This is just my own personal sales pitch. The TSA is always in need of talented people and you two have already shown that you are indeed skilled and quick to learn."

Alice frowned at the offer and she saw her father's knowing nod, which meant he had expected something like this. He had also declined to comment so that meant he was leaving it to her to decide. Could she leave her world to join these people? It was tempting just from the interesting things she had seen so far. And she really wanted to know more about magic, the technology these people made with its application and they were better than she currently was at manipulating it.

"I can see that it's something to think on," Hayate continued. "So in the meantime, I think I'll do something now as a freebie. Vita?"

"Yeah?" the shorter woman said, jerking in her seat in slight surprise.

"Could you take the girls down to supply to be kitted out? Neither of them have any clothes with them nor do they have any basic hygiene items so they will need to be provided with some. And I would also like you, until we get started on this operation, to train with the girls."

"Train with them?" Vita said in shock. "Me? By myself this time?"

"You are still qualified as an instructor Vita," Nanoha pointed out with a very amused smile. "And you already saw Alice in action earlier."

"I suppose," Vita said, mulling it over. "What do you think Alice?"

"Of course I want to learn more!" Alice answered with a grin she couldn't suppress. She heard Azusa's giggle next to her and Lushia laughed outright.

"Then I guess it's alright," Vita said in resigned agreement. "But what about you Lushia?"

"Me?" Lushia said, radiating pure glee through their link. "I'm more than happy to help my mistress improve. I did promise to make her into a one girl army eventually." Her little face was ecstatic.

"I thought that was a joke?" Alice asked warily.

"Did you?" Lushia looked very amusedly at Hayate. "You said you made her?" she gestured at Rein who didn't appear to appreciate Lushia's attention being on her again. Alice wondered why that was. It wasn't as if Lushia would actually do anything to her, Lushia just liked teasing.

"Yes, why?" Hayate didn't get where Lushia was going with this.

"I'm going to assume that you used old Belkan research records or something in order to do so?"

"Yes, when I was researching about how I wanted to reconstruct my device I researched unison devices fairly heavily," Hayate answered. "I did look at other options but that is what I chose."

"And did you happen to find the original intention behind our development?"

"No, I never saw why the old Belkan's decided to make unison devices; I only found the method of their creation and a précis on their use. Why?" Hayate seemed to have gotten at least an inkling of what Lushia was getting at and she looked very interested now.

Lushia grinned ominously. "As you probably know, devices were invented to increase the potential of the knights or mages they were bonded to. It turned an ordinary knight, who they equated as the same as having the equivalent combat power as a squad of normal soldiers, into someone who could equal several squads or platoons. Unison devices were intended for knights of the greatest power. It was supposed to make it so that they could take on entire enemy armies at once. It was why we were given actual bodies of a sort and a greater level of sentience. Did any of those records list any of the actual unison devices that were constructed?"

"Some, but not in any detailed way," Hayate answered.

"Did you see an alphanumeric designation with any names or descriptions?"

"Yes, several times, they all had the letters 'AP' followed by a set of letters and numbers."

"That's what I was hoping you saw, that "AP" is part of the project designation and it stands for 'assault and pacification' which was the goal of its end product," Lushia gave another predatory smile. "We were supposed to give our masters the ability to single handedly control and dominate any battle they chose to enter."

"And you want to turn me into that?" Alice said skeptically. "I think you're getting ahead of things."

"You'd be surprised what you might have the capabilities for," Lushia smirked. "But no, I don't think you can become some walking war machine. I just want to explore your potential and bring it all the way out. And that's my personal desire, not any kind of inborn instinct from my makers. I want you and I to become the best we possibly can according to your wishes."

"Then I can't really disagree with that," Alice smiled. She turned to look at Azusa. "How about you? Are you sure you want to do this?"

"Oh yes, It sounds fun actually," Azusa answered with a return smile. "Especially now that it's not part of any experiments or anything like that, I really want to know how to control what I can do."

"Then we're all good I guess," Vita smiled in satisfaction. "I don't know what Hayate is thinking by giving you to me, but we're gonna have a fun time together. Hopefully."

"Wait a minute please," Everyone turned in surprise to Alice's father who they all thought was condoning this. Except that he was looking at Azusa instead of Alice. "What about your parent's Azusa, shouldn't we contact them and let them know you're alive?"

Azusa suddenly bore the expression of a cornered animal; like she would bolt at any moment. "I-I would rather not talk to my father. You can let him know I'm safe, but I don't want to see him. I want to stay here with Alice."

Alice saw the worry on her friend's face and felt something clench around her own heart. But her father beat her to speaking.

"Has he harmed you?" Her father's deep rumbling tone spoke volumes. He had a protective streak a mile wide. It was his motivation for originally joining the Marine Corp. If one of his daughter's friends was being abused than he would personally find the man and rectify the situation in one way or another; even if it meant severely injuring the man.

"No!" Azusa responded quickly, also understanding her father's attitude. "It's just that, he wouldn't understand any of this. He would think that it's all a bunch of nonsense and he most definitely would want take me away from all of you." Her pointed glance at Alice said who it was she didn't want to leave behind. "You can contact him, but if he insists that I come home tell him that I'll talk to him later."

"What about your sisters?" Alice whispered quietly.

"I miss them," Azu acknowledged. "But this is important to me. If they know I'm safe and that I will see them again, then that is fine for now."

"If that's the way you want it, then I can't force you. You're a Japanese citizen, not American." Father said slowly. "Carry on then."

"Good," Vita nodded. "Alright then you two, follow me!"

And with that Vita simply walked around the table and towards the hatch. Alice hastily stood along with Azusa and they quickly moved to follow her. Lushia gave the room a parting farewell flip of a salute, and then flew back onto Alice's shoulder to ride in her customary place. The other occupants of the room watched them with varying smiles and signs of amusement.

Vita led them back through the corridors at a quick pace and down an elevator and then again through more corridors. Alice and Azusa were forced to her rapid, energetic pace and they seemed to plow through the ship. Alice felt slightly harried at first at going from sitting at a conference table to running through a ship, but she'd seen enough of Vita now to see that the woman was probably an abrupt kind of person.

They entered the clearly labeled supply office's hatch and the person at the requisitions counter looked more than a little dismayed by the sight of who he was helping. Then he was quickly bolstered and far less upset when he realized it was Alice and Azusa he would be dealing with and that Vita was simply guiding them around. They were taken back into a small room where a female supply officer quickly and efficiently took their measurements with some sort of magical tool that she waved over them. Then they were each given a large plastic crate, a _self-levitating_ crate, the size of an old steamer luggage and it was filled with each of their sets of clothes.

From what she saw these consisted of TSA uniforms that lacked any sort of decoration or rank insignia, and several sets of training shorts and shirts. Then there were the usual collection of underclothes, socks, and an insignia they were told would designate them as temporary contractor mages, a pair of athletic shoes and a pair of expensive, comfortable looking boots. Lastly a sealed and separate bag was put in that contained soap, shampoo and those sorts of necessities.

Now fully equipped, they were shuffled back to the counter clerk with whom they signed a form. They found that Vita had spent the time they'd been getting fitted out arranging and finding where their cabin was.

"It's in the quarters for individual mages not attached to enforcement teams and for officers," Vita explained as they were again guided through passageways. This time she and Azusa held onto a cord that ran back to the floating crates which followed dutifully behind them like trained dogs. They got many more strange looks this time.

They went back up one level and then entered an area that looked a little more lived in. They passed by a recreation room that was occupied by a group of rowdy young men playing some sort of card game and she saw one room that she thought had to be some kind of small theatre. The lighting was also a little brighter as if to accentuate that this was the living quarters area.

The cabin doors they passed all bore one or two names on them in clear lettering. But Vita led them to a door on which the name plaque was blank.

"Place your hands on the door and say your names clearly," Vita instructed.

They did so.

"Alice Rhoads. Identification imprinted. Azusa Higa. Identification Imprinted," said a voice from the air. Their names appeared on the plaque as is written there by an invisible pen.

The hatch slid open smoothly and a light flicked on to reveal a small, but cozy room with a bunk to either side. A dresser was mounted to the back wall next to each bed for their clothes and there was a small desk in the front right corner. The left corner had a door that was marked 'bathroom'. The cleanly made beds looked really inviting at the moment and Azusa looked like she agreed. Sure they may have just slept for almost an entire day, but they were still recuperating and both of their body's clocks were still thrown off.

"Do you guys need anything before I go?" Vita asked.

"No," Alice responded after getting a negative shake from Azu.

"Alright then, I'll be back in the morning to drag you both to breakfast." With that Vita left with a grin.

For a moment she and Azusa just looked at each other, then Alice just smiled, flipped the light back off, and they both headed for the right bunk. Since it was much larger than the bed they'd shared in Russia, it felt almost huge. Once they were both comfortable, Lushia settled herself down inside Alice's arm. Alice didn't know why Lushia liked sleeping there, but she knew the womenl did and she had no problem with it.

They hadn't even thought for a moment either about not sharing a bed. It was just how things were between them now.

Being in a strange bed was slightly bothersome, but for Alice sleep wasn't long in coming. Her body seemed to need another night to reset itself and she gladly gave it what it wanted.

000000

Howard found himself chuckling to himself after his daughter and her friend left the conference room. The look on Alice's face when Vita trooped her out of the room was an expression he rarely got to see. His daughter was usually so self-assured and composed that he found it humorous when someone managed to unbalance her like this. And it was good for her too.

"Are you sure your okay with Alice training with us?" Nanoha said now. She sat across the table from him next to Fate so her expression of concern was easy to see. "Being a mage isn't always an easy life."

"Ma'am," Howard barked a laugh he couldn't quite restrain. "Alice has always done her own thing. I've guided her and helped her along the way, but that's the type of person she is. And as soon as I saw her notebook with all her expansive notes on her magic experiments I knew that that was where her future lay. But now she has found you people. The opportunities you offer her are probably a dream come true for her. I would be remiss as a parent to hold her back. And it's a much better career path than my own."

"Oh? Why's that?" Commander Hayate asked.

"The Marine Corp is not exactly the safest profession and I can't picture Alice following in my footsteps. This way she can learn to her heart's content."

"That's probably very true," Fate said with a smile. "There are many diverse careers available within the TSAB and on the worlds we administer. But you do realize that if she chooses such a path then she would have to leave this world, at least for a short time?"

"Yes I do, but I also assume there would still be ways for us to stay in contact?"

"Yes," Nanoha confirmed with a wide smile. "My own family lives here in Japan and I've kept in contact with them even though I live on Mid-Childa with Fate and my daughter Vivio."

"You're from Earth?" Howard said in some surprise.

"Oh? I didn't mention that before?" she paused in momentary contemplation. "I thought I did. But yes, both Hayate and I were born on earth and we joined the TSAB later."

"But it's something you'd recommend others to do, to join your organizations?"

"Of course," this time Nanoha grinned. "Like any large entity we've had some problems, but nowhere else have I met people like I have through the TSAB. Your daughter has talent as does her friend Azusa and I believe they would thrive in the kind of environment we offer. And even if she chooses another path we offer many top notch schools and training facilities in an almost infinite number of areas."

"Somehow I don't think Lushia would be very happy with a peaceful job," Rein said offhandedly. Howard had a very hard time not thinking of both Rein and Alice's Lushia as children. His mental reflex was to put such a small person at that level. But it was quite clear that both of them were adults in terms of thought. Hell, if Lushia's story is true than she's older than everyone on this ship or the entire damn planet.

"Be nice to her Rein," Hayate said pleasantly. "She seemed to like you."

"Like me? She seemed bothered by me," Rein said resignedly. "But she's a lot better than Agito." Rein seemed to brighten suddenly. "Can I _please_ be there when she meets Agito?"

"Now, now, taking joy in the suffering of others isn't very nice," Nanoha said amusedly.

They made more general small talk for a little while but after about a half hour or so Commander Hayate stood up.

"Ambassador, I'm sorry for holding you up so late and to you as well Ms. Denning, I forgot how late it already is."

"It's alright, I was enjoying myself actually," Howard admitted. "I thought being an ambassador would be boring and stuffy."

"Then I'm glad you've enjoyed our company. I'll lead you back to you quarters and in the morning we can start things rolling.

"Sounds good."

000000

"Good Morning!"

The cheerful morning greeting cut right into Alice slumber and she jolted upright in a reflexive panic. Her brain, in its half awake state, slipped back and remembered being awaked like this by Juden's guard. Before she could even form a conscious thought she was already gathering power and the four spike heads of her chains slipped out of their dimensional pockets above the bed. Azusa was also jolted awake but Alice was already moving out of the bed and between her and the door.

"Whoa hold on!"

The female voice made her stop and her brain finished waking the rest of the way up. She found herself looking right at a very surprised Vita who had her chains pointed at her from different directions. Feeling more than a little chagrined, Alice dismissed her chains and sent them away.

"Sorry about that," she apologized.

"No problem," Vita chuckled. "Nanoha warned me that you don't handle being surprised too calmly after what happened. I guess I should have listened to her. Nice reflexes though!"

A yawning Lushia floated up next to her and Alice smiled, "morning Lushia."

"Ah, morning Alice, what's going on?"

"Alice did you do something rude again?" Azusa said as she sat back up and looked at Vita.

"Morning you two," Vita grinned. "Alice just showed me what happens when I surprise her awake."

"Alice!" Azusa said in a chiding tone that made Alice feel very chastened. "You've got to stop doing that!"

"I can't help it," Alice said apologetically. "I'm pretty much on autopilot when I first wake up and now that I have these chains I just use them out of reflex. My flight or fight response is set to fight."

"No harm was done and it makes you fun," Vita chuckled. She then jerked a thumb toward the bathroom. "Shower up and get dressed. Hayate wants to see if we can really use that ship of yours. I'll be waiting outside."

Vita stepped back out of the hatch and closed it behind her. Alice gave Lushia a confused look. "Is it my ship?"

"You're my last master's successor so yes," Lushia shrugged. "He left everything to be handled by whoever became my new master, and that means you."

"Oh," the thought of owning a spaceship seemed unreal, even if she had been the one to suggest this whole idea. She didn't even know how to use the thing. She looked over to Azusa, who looked much better and well rested now, and flipped a hand toward the bathroom. "You want to go first?"

"Sure," Azu answered cheerfully. "Can you sort out the clothes while I'm taking my turn?"

"Yep!"

Twenty-five minutes later they were both dressed in the uniforms they had been given. They wore a blue suit skirt, a white shirt and coat with blue shoulder things, white leggings and the blue on white boots. Alice had carefully attached the insignia they had been given to the right shoulder of each uniform coat. Alice also decided to tie back her long black hair with a white ribbon Vita provided while Azu wore her shorter brown hair loose.

"How do we look Lushia?" Alice asked.

"Very nice, almost as good as your armor," Lushia said with a smile. "Uniforms look good on you both. Maybe I should change mine?"

Alice felt Lushia concentrate hard and a light glowed briefly from her chest where Lushia's core lay. Lushia shimmered in the air for a moment and when it went away she was wearing a uniform like Rein had been wearing. It was much like their own, except brown and with that odd white cord hanging from the belt at the left hip.

"I don't know if they will like you giving yourself a rank," Alice laughed. "But you look very good too."

"Thank you!" Lushia laughed.

They stepped out into the corridor and Vita's response was also complimentary.

"Very nice," she nodded. "Now it's time to get to work.

This time their walk through the ship drew no glances at all. They were simply three more uniformed women in a mass of them. Lushia drew a few looks, but only brief ones.

The hatch Vita led them to this time was a large one. It was at least twice the normal width. But when she opened it they found themselves in a rather large open space. It was as big as her classroom back home and the far wall had an odd ovular frame mounted on it. The floor was made of bare textured metal and in the middle, where equidistant white lines were painted, was the same crowd as the night before.

Her father now wore his normal everyday uniform minus a unit patch and his assistant wore a slightly less formal skirt and top as well.

"Ah, Alice!" Father said pleasantly. "I see they found some clothes for you and Azusa. It looks good on you both."

"I agree," Hayate nodded. "But we need to get right on things."

Alice turned her head to look at Lushia. "What do I need to do?"

"Hmmm," Lushia dismounted her shoulder and looked around. "This won't do at all. We need some kind of access to the outside. If we do it here, this ship will be torn apart."

"I thought that might be the case," Nanoha said with a smile. "So we came here." She turned her head toward the left wall and spoke loudly. "Open the sortie hatch!"

"Aye ma'am, opening hatch," said a voice from a speaker.

There was a loud ka-thunk of metal from the far wall. Then, she heard the humming purr of powerful hydraulics in motion and the entire area inside the oval bracket began to slide downward. A gap opened up and fresh outside air blasted into the chamber. Pressure quickly equalized and the wind died down to the natural breeze. In less then a minute the oval area was entirely open to the air outside the ship and morning sunlight streamed in.

"This is one of the chambers our enforcer teams prep and sortie from," Fate explained. "They line the entire flanks of the ship and it seemed convenient for this purpose."

"Indeed!" Lushia agreed. "Alice, think you can fly with us out there?" She pointed to the open sky they could see from here.

"I can try," Alice responded.

Alice thought about what she had figured out the day before and gathered power for the task. First she woke her device and she felt the now familiar and extremely comforting presence of her armor as it settled up her. Then she gathered more power and shaped it. That power flowed over her skin and she felt her weight disappear. She concentrated on following Lushia and on not making the jerky motions she had yesterday.

She went slowly at first but picked up speed when she felt more confident. And it was hard to be confident when suddenly she exited the ship and was flying very high above the earth's surface. The buildings miles below were tiny. The wind rushed by her and it felt exhilarating. She felt the others coming up behind her and soon she was in the middle of a globular cluster. They were all in their armor as well and for the fist time she had a feeling of almost belonging to something larger than herself. Her father and Lisa, not being able to fly, were watching from behind them.

But Lushia didn't go out very far, only a kilometer or so. After they reached the safe distance she slowed to a stop so Alice and the others did too. Looking back she saw Azusa, her father and Lisa watching them in a small, barely visible line in the big ship's side. Alice gave a wave but then stopped when she realized that they probably couldn't see the gesture.

"Okay, this should be far enough," Lushia said. "Alright Alice, just follow my instructions as I give them to you."

"Understood."

She felt the information link in her mind open and data flooded in. She quickly sorted it into its components and following what she was being given she began the spell. A large spell form opened beneath her feet and she worked it into the necessary shape and then several more open up around her like glowing blue flowers of spell sigils.

When it was ready and was to Lushia's satisfaction, she thrust her power out from herself into the sky. Following Lushia's direction she sent it screaming upwards. It just kept on going like a needle of power and she slowly curved it around the Earth. Then she knew where it was going. It plunged deep into the moon and once there she felt something respond. It back traced her own thread of power and came to her.

Someone gasped in surprise when a large comm. window opened up in midair. In it was an image of an upward pointing arrow bracketed by a pair of stylized wings.

"_Wing_, caretaker AI, please voice your intentions or desires," the voice was a deep female one and a little stilted.

Lushia floated forward toward the screen. "I am the Witch of the Infinite Chains; my mistress requires access to all functions of the ship."

"You have taken a new master?" the voice sounded intrigued. "Bring her forward for imprinting."

"Imprinting?" Alice said to no one in particular. "Sounds unpleasant." She flew forward anyway, she stopped next to Lushia. "I am her mistress and partner. My name is Alice Rhoads."

"Greetings, Mistress Alice, I am the AI of the ship _Wing_," said the voice from the screen. "I must know you."

Alice felt powerful magic working beneath her, but before she could respond it moved up and over her body. It felt like something was scouring her entire body and being. But almost as fast as it started, it was over and she was floating there again in the air.

"Gestalt taken," said the voice, now in a much friendlier tone. "I hereby acknowledge you as owner and mistress of this vessel. Please state your will."

Again she felt instructions from Lushia but this time they were simply words to repeat. "AI, please disengage all stasis fields from the ship and bring up the main power plant."

"Acknowledged, bringing main power online now. All stasis fields dropped. No problems detected."

"Good, now please bring the ship into a parking position parallel to the ship I am currently near. Dimensional transfer is authorized."

"Acknowledged, thirty seconds are needed to build a transfer."

There was a short pause.

"Beginning transfer now."

Alice felt an enormous, almost overwhelming amount of magical power near her and tried not to grit her teeth. The others around her had similar expressions of discomfort. A small comm. window opened up next to Hayate and Alice recognized the face belonging to Griffith.

"Commander, we're registering a large mass dimensional transfer with an end point near us."

"That's the ship Alice is bringing us," Hayate responded. "Please keep an eye on things."

The window closed just as the air in front of them seemed to ripple and distort. It bulged out as if a piece of invisible plastic wrap had been stretched across the sky and something was now pushing at it from the other side, making distortion lines appear. Then a line appeared as if someone had sliced the fabric of reality with a knife. And from that line came something huge. It poured from that line like it was made of liquid but soon solidified into the sleek, elongated delta shape of a ship.

It slid through the air only a few dozen meters in front of them and slowed to a halt. Alice estimated its length to be about two hundred meters long and it was a pure, almost blinding white in color. It was a lot longer than it was wide and it looked almost like the tip portion of a spear. Even sitting still like this, she could feel power rolling off it, power that reached out and recognized her.

"The ship has arrived," the AI announced unnecessarily. "Do you and your company wish to board?"

"Yes we do," Alice answered. "If possible, please take us to the bridge or control room. And please bring the three individuals standing in that open space in the other ship as well."

"Very well."

Almost as soon as the words were out, the world was ripped away and replaced with a small room filled with consoles and comfortable looking seats. Not one of them looked to have ever been used. They all stood in the relatively empty space in the middle of it. The only thing else in the space was a lone seat that looked to be mounted right to the deck. The quintessential captain's seat, obviously. It seemed that Lushia's previous master hadn't been above cliché's in ship design.

They all canceled their flight spells and settled onto the deck; all except for Lisa, her father and Azusa of course.

"Whoo, I thought you said your previous master lived alone?" Vita said as she looked around. "This ship is huge for just one person."

"I think he said something about wanting all the comforts he could since he'd be traveling alone," Lushia said with a shrug. "A lot of the rooms are really plush and comfortable. And his labs are all fully equipped."

"Mistress," said the AI from the air. "Please state the status of your guests."

Alice thought about that for a minute and decided what would suit their current purposes best. "Please designate them as ship's crew and confer them that level of access."

"Understood, imprinting crew."

Alice watched in amusement as all the others were scanned like she had been. But she knew they were here for a reason. It was time to get to it.

"AI, where can we access navigational information?"

"That can be accessed here, Mistress."

The room darkened a great deal and in the air before them, in the center of the room, a holographic image took form. It shaped itself into an eerily realistic miniature of the planet earth and the moon, complete with moving clouds. An icon appeared on that model over the island of Kyushu. That marked their present location.

Alice felt the AI trying to access her mind, and she let it. Suddenly she felt like she was connected to the entire ship. It was incredibly overwhelming and confusing. But she focused on the hologram in front of them and opened herself to the navigational system. With an experimental thought, she "unfolded' the globe of the earth in front of her and zoomed in on the region they currently occupied. Kyushu exploded into view and everything in and around it came into lifelike focus.

"Very useful," Hayate said with a grin. "Now Hirtolia?"

Alice queried the world in question and the currant image vanished. She felt the computer retrieving and compiling the information she wanted from its databases. Then another, alien globe appear.

Like earth, it had the blue, green, and white of a life bearing world. It had five large continents, two polar icecaps without land beneath them, and a truly astounding number of islands. Two of the continents were much larger than the others and one straddled the denoted equator. The other three were in a roughly triangular cluster in the opposite hemisphere. Oceans and the islands dominated the rest. She also brought up its planetary data.

"Hirtolia," she read aloud, even as the text started to appear in a sidebar. "Gravity, 1.36 that of earth, an axial tilt of about 12 degrees resulting in some rather severe seasonal changes in the temperate zones, its generally a bit warmer overall than Earth since even though its farther out from its star, the star is much hotter. It's extremely geologically active and fairly young, and some extraordinary weather patterns exist due to the much larger hydrosphere of the world. Estimated human population when the ship last visited the world: 180 million."

"180 million people?" Father said in an astounded tone as he gave a marveling look at the image. "That's it?"

"Lushia said that the locals were only at the hunter-gatherer level before the interference happened," Nanoha said. "That would keep the population down, not to mention the probably incredible death rates and infant mortality with that kind of tech base."

Lushia nodded her agreement. "My master's theory was that this world was seeded with humans eons ago and it never really advanced very much. Focus things on the population centers Alice."

Alice did as she was asked and demanded the change from the computer with her mind. The globe rotated and then expanded outward like the peeled skin of an orange. Then it focused and zoomed in on the large continent that sat on the equator. A measurement key appeared at her request and it denoted the landmass as being over 3600 kilometers from east to west and just over a thousand from north to south at its widest point. On the far eastern coast, at what looked like a natural harbor appeared a glowing dot and the label: Walled City-Temple. Somewhere in the middle of the land, about 400 kilometers north of the equator, appeared another large dot. This one had the designator: Imperial City. A smattering a very few other dots also appeared, but they weren't important enough for them to need their names at the moment.

"They only settled onto one continent of their world?" Nanoha asked.

"No," Lushia shook her head. "The Belkan's gathered up the scattered world populations and concentrated them. Even so, as you can see, almost everyone ended up in either of those two main cities. The other population centers barely deserve to be called towns.

"And even I can see that that was an extremely stupid place to put a city!" Alice said, pointing at the Imperial City dot. "I mean, look at that. It's nowhere near a river or lake or any kind of fresh water source. A mental query says that the area is also thin in metal and other mineral deposits and the lands around aren't very suitable for farmland. It's labeled as being much like the African savanna. Now, just 200KM to the west, is that nice big river, fertile flood lands on the other side and easier access to natural building materials." She felt disgust welling up inside her. "Putting the city there has to be almost criminally foolish."

"I can see what you mean," Hayate said, giving her an odd and very appraising smile. "That was a good observation. Lushia?"

"No idea," the small woman said. "We never asked them about any of that. Most likely it was simply another way to show their hold over the people of the planet."

"That's horrible," Azusa said softly.

"Yeah, and it definitely explains why they are running out of water and food," Alice agreed. "And that Walled City where the temple is isn't much better. It looks like they chose it only for the natural harbor that exists there and ignored the fact that it sits behind that line of mountains. Its rainfall levels look to be extremely low and the terrain looks rocky and tough, also bad farmland. But at least there someone put in that aqueduct looking thing, though I can't believe that just one provides enough fresh water for a whole city of people."

"Impossible," Father agreed with her. "I know how much food and water it takes to supply a few thousand troops, and unless that thing is bringing the same volume as a small river, it can't be enough."

"But this is good," Hayate nodded at the image. "Alice, can you ask the ship to send the data on how to get to this world to my ships?"

"Let me try," she sent a request for just that to the AI.

"Acknowledged," the AI said aloud. "Contacting the other ships' computers….contacted. Information compatibility assessed and deemed adequate. Sending. Information sent and a good copy receipt has been received by all the designated vessels. Do you wish to store these ships' contact data for the future?"

"Yes, do that," Alice agreed. Who knew if she might have need to contact any of them again.

"Well, now that that's taken care of, should we have a look around?" Hayate asked.

"You're in charge," father shrugged.

"Yes, but this is Alice's ship," Hayate smiled. "Here, I'm the guest.

"I don't mind," Alice laughed. "Until last night I had no idea I even had one. The idea of it is kind of cool, so I'm all for exploring for a little while. Why don't you play tour guide Lushia?"

"Sure! Sounds fun," Lushia chuckled. "Follow me, step lively now!" she said getting into the role immediately.

Lushia took them out of the control room and into a comfortably lit corridor. The deck was made of a soft black material that was nice to walk on and the walls were painted in soothing earth tones. Alice had expected it to be just as starkly white as the outside, but she liked this much better.

Lushia showed them a lavishly equipped library, a study, a conference room of some kind and an information storage room. There was a richly appointed dinning cabin with seating for at least twenty with an attached kitchen that had everything a five-star chef could possibly want; there was even food in the stasis equipped refrigerators and a butler's pantry containing real silver. There were a total of five personal cabins with single bunks and a captain's cabin that belonged in a resort hotel; she'd never seen a bed that big and with sheets large enough to get lost inside. The lavatories were similarly well appointed. Near the captain's cabin were a series of rooms that contained entertainments, including a large open room whose volume was much different that its outside dimensions indicated. There was even a three lane swimming pool of all things.

Moving deeper into the ship brought them to the more professional and technical areas. There were three labs with equipment that she was far from understanding the use of. Dr. Shamal almost seemed to faint with glee when Lushia brought them into a medical suite. Alice had no medical knowledge at all, but from the woman's expression, Lushia's last master had spared no expense. The power room they passed by since, as Lushia explained, only Alice would be permitted entry at the moment. The other engineering spaces contained things none of them understood. But finally, Lushia brought them to a double hatch that was emblazoned with the words: Special Storage.

"What's in here?" Alice asked.

A surprise for Azusa, if you will permit," Lushia smiled. "I promise you that she will love it."

"Sure," Alice agreed, and sent the mental command for the hatch to open. It did so with the silence she was finally starting to get used to.

They paraded into the well lit room with a large number of equipment on racks that ran along the near wall that went to the left from the hatch, but the rest was filled with rows of what looked like waist high cabinets with top mounted lids.

"Alice, please ask the AI to open them all," Lushia asked, her excitement was bubbling through their link and it was hard not to feel it herself in echo.

"Alright, AI please open all the storage cabinets in this room."

"Acknowledged."

A soft tone sounded and all the cabinets rippled as barriers and shields were shut down. Then there came the sound of many mechanical catches opening. And in one simultaneous movement, every lid rose straight upwards on rectangular pillars of soft-blue light. Rising with the lids after a moment so that they hung suspended in those columns of light, were a multitude of small objects that shimmered faintly.

"Oh my…" said someone softly.

All the TSAB people were staring at the collection in consternation and stunned Amazement; Vita and Shamal even more so than the others for some reason.

"Are those…?" Fate asked, her voice drifting off.

"Yes," Lushia said in proud tones. "Like myself, my master didn't always destroy what he found when he punished fools on Belka. Some were taken into protective custody here. What you see before you are one-hundred and forty-seven Belkan devices from knights he defeated or from labs he destroyed."

"One-hundred and forty-seven," Hayate whispered softly. "Enough to equip a small battalion and all of them Belkan in design."

"And that's not all," Lushia smiled. "Come over here for a second Alice."

Alice followed Lushia down the front rack area of equipment until she stopped by a peculiar device on a shelf that had at least a dozen cylindrical slots in the top along with a hinge lid that was meant to be closed overtop them. Below that were several drawers. Lushia flew down and with a gesture, one slid open to reveal a large number of silvery metal cylinders that sat upright on their bases.

"Whew! That's a lot of cartridges!" Vita said with feeling.

"These are those cartridges you were talking about?" Alice said picking one up and turning it about in front of her. It didn't look much different that a solid metal battery or something.

"Yes," Lushia nodded. "These will fit into your firing chambers. Take out a dozen and put them into that machine on the counter."

Alice did so.

"Good, now close the lid while letting a small thread of your magic flow into the machine."

Again Alice followed the directions and when the lid close, a holographic display awoke with a countdown timer and it began to hum softly. According to the timer, it would reach zero in thirty minutes.

"There, that machine will charge your cartridges for you!" Lushia grinned.

"Wish we would have had one of those no to long ago," Shamal said in a wry tone to the others. Vita nodded fervently at the comment. "Charging them the hard way takes up a lot of time.

"This does too," Lushia shrugged. "But you can do multiple at one time. Fully equipped military units and knights had machines that could charge a hundred at once. Now, its time for Azusa."

"Me?" Azusa asked interestedly. "You have something for me?"

"Oh yes!" Lushia laughed and swept her arm out to indicate the entire room. "Pick one of these. With your already developed abilities and power, you need a device, and none of these will let you down."

"You're letting her have a device of her own!" Nanoha gasped and Fate looked equally upset. "Training should come first."

"Azusa needs the control and partnership a device offers," Lushia argued. "Her power is already very strong."

"I have to agree with Lushia," Vita said. "Since I'm going to be working with them, is it alright if I approve?"

"You sure?" Hayate asked.

"Yep, I'll keep an eye on her. And no doubt Alice and Lushia will as well."

Hayate sighed. "Then go ahead. But make sure both Alice and Azusa are wearing their limiters when they come back aboard my ship. The security system will have fits if we have both of them walking around otherwise."

"So there yah go," Lushia said to Azusa with a wide smile.

"How do I pick?" Azusa asked looking first at Lushia and then at Alice. Alice simply smiled encouragement and happiness for her.

"Just walk among them and touch your hand lightly to each one, preferably with your eyes closed," Lushia instructed. "You will be able to feel their personality and intelligence, and when you find the one right one, you will most definitely know because it will seem to call out to you. Your magic and it will resonate and with your sensitivity, that should be a simple thing to pick up upon."

"Can you walk with me, Alice?" Azusa said nervously now.

"Sure, no problem," Alice answered.

She followed behind Azusa and they stepped into the first row of cabinets. Very hesitantly, Azusa reached out toward a golden starburst on a thread of red silk cloth. She touched it and closed her eyes. Then her eyes blinked back open and she looked at Alice in amazement. "She was right Alice!" she said with a wondering smile. "I could feel it. But this isn't the one."

So they went up and down the rows. Not a single device looked like another. Many resembled miniature weapons like swords, daggers, maces, spears and hammers. But Azusa seemed more drawn to the ones that didn't look blatantly like weapons. It was down the fifth row when Azusa stopped absolutely still. Her hand was just touching on a complicated looking bracelet of interwoven bands of silver and gold metals. Set into the bands and held tight by spirals of them, were two clear stones that were a bright, sunny yellow. Azusa held her hand to it for a much longer time than the others and a smile slowly bloomed on her face. Her fingers curled around the bracelet, drew it out of the light and easily slipped it onto her right wrist. There was a slight shimmering glow of light from the device and it with a distortion of matter and space, it tightened slightly so that it sat comfortably but safely in place.

"Beautiful," Alice said softly. "She's lovely," she didn't know why she used the feminine pronoun, but she felt that it was the appropriate one to use. "What's her name?"

"Sonne Geist," Azusa said, a very happy smile warming her face. She then looked to Lushia. "She's perfect!"

"So I can see, and she is very appropriate partner for you," Lushia smiled.

"Very nice," Hayate agreed with her own smile from where she stood watching a few paces away. The others looked equally pleased, though Father and Lisa looked like they were simply being happy for someone's blessing even though this was way out of their experience.

"Will you activate her here?" Nanoha asked.

Azusa looked at her and then Lushia eagerly.

"Why don't we go back to that open room?" Alice asked Lushia. She gestured at the room. "I'm not an expert, but using a lot of magic here cause unintended problems.".

"That will work splendidly," Lushia agreed.

So Alice shut the room back down and put the other devices away. It seemed almost sad to her to made them go back to sleep so suddenly. But it was unsafe to leave them out. They then, after she retrieved her charged cartridges, they all traveled back through the ship the large empty chamber.

This time it was Azusa who separated from the group and became the center of attention. Something she realized quickly and immediately blushed in a fit of nerves. But she didn't move. She simple stood there, calmed herself down, and kept touching her dormant device with her other hand.

"Okay Azu," Alice said cheerfully and encouragingly. "Go ahead and wake her up."

Azusa nodded and closed her eyes. Then after a long moment of smiling silence she spoke smoothly and clearly, "Rise, Sonne Geist."

As soon as she spoke the device's name it was as if Azusa was engulfed in an instant by a small chunk of the sun. It befitted the device's name well. Unlike the almost harsh yellow of Fate's magic, Azusa's was warm, energizing and filled the closed room.. It lasted for several glorious minutes, but soon Azusa was standing there with her armor in place and the activated device held comfortably in her hand.

Azusa's armor consisted of a long-sleeved white coat with a complicated trim, over which a shiny, silver breastplate hugged tight to the body. All that ran down to a complicated set of white and black divided and layered skirts. Spotless white boots and leggings came up from her feet. At each temple, a 'V' of glowing yellow, stylized feathers floated in the air, with the open end pointed up and behind her. A thin black ribbon tied up her hair a little.

Held in Azusa's right hand, her device sat upright from the floot. It was an alabaster white staff with the golden tracery pattern of falling feathers going down the shaft. At the top were two spheres in which those sunny stones were encased. Atop those was a foot long sinuous blade that was again patterned on its surface like a feather. The entire device looked like it was made of ceramic instead of metal or wood. But hanging dead center at the joining point of the two spheres was a hair-thin hallow of golden light.

"Greetings, my Master, I am ready," said a soft, pleasant, and female voice, the voice of Sonne Geist. As it spoke the golden halo seemed to glow a little brighter in cadence to the words.

"Thank you," Azusa said, smiling at the staff in her hand. Then she looked right at Alice. "What do you think?"

"You look incredible," Alice answered in a truthful hush. She actually found it a bit hard to voice what she felt. Azusa looked beautiful. "Very much so."

"Agreed," Lushia grinned; Alice could feel her partner's amusement at her inner feelings. But she wasn't really ashamed of them at all. And it wasn't as if she could hide them from Lushia anyways.

The rest of the group congratulated Azusa in turn. But Alice and Azusa kept matching eyes and she knew her profound happiness for her friend was felt. But unfortunately all things must come to an end.

"Well, this has been very exciting," Hayate said after everyone had a chance to properly see Azusa and her new device. "But there's still a lot of prep work to be done. It's time to head back to the _Wolfram_."

There was a general murmur of assent, and at Hayate's request, Alice used the _Wing_ to teleport them back aboard the other vessel. Once they were back aboard Hayate's ship Alice gave _hers_ a command to button up tight for now and await further orders. After which they began to break up to work on their various task.

Five minutes later it was just Alice and Azusa, both still in their armor, and Vita in hers, in the training room. Vita stood before them with her arms resting behind her back and grin was creasing her face.

"Now you're all mine!"

**

Author's notes:

Sonne Geist: sun spirit


End file.
